Examiner.com – Religion & Spirituality – The Christian’s acceptance of lust.
The young Christian girl sat on the floor of her boyfriend’s room as he surfed the web for information on school as another friend of hers recounted his recent trip to Las Vegas. When he commenced sharing the fun weekend he had, she piped up about one of her favorite experiences in sin city, which poses, ironically, as an appropriate reference for her anecdote. “Yeah, I love Vegas, I remember once at the mall I saw the hottest guy I have ever seen! He was modeling for some store and as I walked by him, I stopped dead in my tracks and stared at him with my mouth agape. As soon as I realized what I was doing, I sped off embarrassed, but he was just so hot I couldn’t help it!” Her boyfriend, apparently unfazed by this, continued browsing web sites indicating he was accustom to this kind of behavior from his girlfriend.
How many times have you been exposed to a similar situation involving somebody who was married or in an intimate relationship? How many times have you heard a married woman exclaim: “Oh my gosh, Ryan Reynold taking his shirt off was worth the price of admission alone!” or a married man spout: “I about creamed my pants when Megan Fox was bent over the front of the motorcycle!”
This behavior has become widely accepted by many Christians who have subscribed to the idea that it’s not such a big deal to ramble on about a hot girl or guy that isn’t their significant other. We seem to have forgotten a strong message from Jesus in Matthew 5:28: “But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Now, Jesus singles out us guys in this passage because we aren’t exactly the fairer of the two sexes, however, it should be apparent that the perpetrators are not limited to either gender.
My pastor several weeks ago, commented on the fact that Jesus was an extremist and that we humans want Him to come down from His high horse to a more practical, easier level. The world of Christianity has done this and we are all guilty of trying to attribute Jesus’ teachings to our feeble, worldly values. The acceptance of: “Well, I can see what’s on the menu as long as I eat at home” has denigrated the Bible and has allowed pseudo-spiritual complacence in committing mindful adultery.
Where many people have gone wrong is not recognizing this seemingly minor misdeed for what it is. A man or a woman will always catch themselves looking at somebody that isn’t their spouse and acknowledging them to be attractive, there is no avoiding that in life, but the problem lies within when somebody lets dwell on that acknowledgment; entertains the thought of that attractive stranger and lets their mind focus on that potential person’s good looks, alluring figure or charm.
Perhaps a strong reason for the continuous iniquity of this manner is the fact that many people do not recognize it as sin. Many husbands and wives have accepted that it is OK for their respective spouse to lust after people other than themselves as long as they are a movie star or celebrity of sorts. This is just as bad. It opens the door for lustful thoughts in the same way a man checking out his neighbor’s wife does. The fact of the matter is that once a person does this and continues to do this, it defames his or her love for their spouse and it defames his or her relationship with God. It leads to masturbation with thoughts of one’s fantasy celebrities or even thoughts of somebody else while making love to one’s spouse. It then leads to adultery, the act of physically cheating on one’s spouse. Everything starts out as a thought, and a thought can be just as damaging as an action. Jesus knew this when He spoke about it in Matthew and we, as His followers, should pay much stronger attention to this verse and apply it more directly in our lives.
“It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God…” Thessalonians 4:3-5
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