Matthew 5:27-32

Matthew 5:27-32

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘You have learnt how it was said: You must not commit adultery. But I say this to you: if a man looks at a woman lustfully, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye should cause you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; for it will do you less harm to lose one part of you than to have your whole body thrown into hell. And if your right hand should cause you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; for it will do you less harm to lose one part of you than to have your whole body go to hell.

‘It has also been said: Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a writ of dismissal. But I say this to you: everyone who divorces his wife, except for the case of fornication, makes her an adulteress; and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.’

REFLECTION

Let’s talk about lust.

To begin with, sexual attraction is not wrong.

God “made them male and female”, so that “the two might become one”, and “go forth and multiply”.

The human race would not have got very far without this truth, hardwired as it is into creation.

But there is a difference between attraction and lust.

Attraction sees the person.

Lust sees the body and nothing else.

This is one of the fundamental problems with pornography. It depicts people as sexual objects rather than what they.

Children of God. Made in His image and likeness. Precious in His sight.

This is why lust is such a deadly sin. Read the story of King David and Bathsheba.

We see nothing but the other as an object for our own sexual gratification and not as the God-created, wonderful, beautiful, person that they are.