Adulterers: Matthew 5:27-32

As a child and teenager, I was in church all the time, and that is no exaggeration.  From an early age I learned the 10 commandments, and I was always looking for the "easy ones" to follow.  The 7th commandment "thou shall not commit adultery," was one I just knew I would never break...  

​Matthew 5:28English Standard Version (ESV)
28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

And then this verse happened.  Jesus took my idea of adultery and expanded it into a whole new realm.  Previously my mind understood to successfully fulfill this obligation of the Law was simple.  Do not have an affair with anyone other than my wife.  In came Matthew 5:27-32, and Jesus included, not only the obvious, but also lusting after a woman.  My mind was blown.  My pride in my own discipline was devastated.

For Jesus to take the physical act of adultery and make it a sin of the heart and mind was almost too much for me to comprehend.  If adultery can be done this way, what other sins could follow?  Are any of the Commandments safe or are all open to being broken in the mind?  Is it adultery for 2 people to have sex who aren't married to anybody?  Have they cheated on their future spouse by their action?  What must I do, or not do, to be right before God?  Where is the list?

In the very next passage Jesus gives us another way people commit adultery.  Anyone who divorces his wife, except because of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and to marry a divorced woman is to commit adultery.  

Who knew that it was so hard to not commit adultery?

The understanding I had as a child and teenager has changed tremendously.  These verses along with the verses surrounding them in Matthew (read Heart Problems post) must make us realize that we have tried to limit sin to a list of do's and don'ts, and God has dedicated a very generous part of the Bible trying to show His holiness extends to much more than we have on our puny list. 

• Deuteronomy 6:5
• Deuteronomy 30:17
• Psalm 15:2
• Psalm 40:8
• Psalm 51:17
• Matthew 22:37

The purpose of this post IS NOT to make you or me feel guilty over past sins.  All of us have already committed the greatest form of adultery.  We have left the God of the universe to go into an adulterous relationship with idols that have left us used, broken and unfulfilled.  Instead, God calls us to Himself, giving us a relationship full of purpose, hope, and life.  I hope we will see our sin, all of it, at its beginning point... in our hearts and minds.  I pray we won't think of our relationship with God as a list of do's and don'ts.  That we will find comfort (maybe terror) knowing at the end of the day God is looking at what's found in our hearts.

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