27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.
I like and use this section of verses for all the wrong reasons. But first, let’s get to what Jesus is saying.
It’s really simple. If you have fantasy and lust over someone, you are as guilty as committing the act. Why? Because in a sense you have committed the act in your heart, against their will.
I remember one time a [married] person telling me of the fantasies they had with me. It was disgusting and angering. I gave this person no right or permission to do in real life, but their imagination was as if it was real life.
There’s also the fact that if there were no social and moral limitations, they would want to participate in those acts. That’s what Jesus is saying. In your imagination, you have the person do things you want them to do, but in real life they probably wouldn’t do. And if there were no moral and social limitations, you would probably find a way to act upon them. I probably would as well.
What Jesus is saying is that lust is serious. So serious it literally can endanger your soul to hell. I don’t actually believe he is saying cut off your hand, but rather to treat it as so serious that you take all measures to deal with it. It doesn’t mean having nothing to do with the opposite sex. Oftentimes that makes matters worse. But we do monitor where our feet take us and what our eyes see and the attitudes of our heart that can feed into such desires. Anger, loneliness and unforgiveness are like pouring gasoline on lust. So we do have to be careful with things like these as well.
Now to how I use this text and like it for all the wrong reasons. Truth be told is when people whip out proof texting. Proof texting is saying, the Bible says this so that’s proof that is what it means. They usually use only one verse to prove their point. And completely separate it from its context.
Recently for example I did a video on YouTube on how John the Baptist is like the “Elijah to come” as the Scriptures say (here). A man said that John wasn’t like Elijah as the Bible didn’t say that. He said John the Baptist IS Elijah. Here’s the verse he used:
And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. (Mt 11:14)
Here was the original comment:
“No Jesus said he was Elijah. Where do you come up with he said, “like” Elijah?“
When I wrote back and said we need to look at in context and what the Scriptures mean, etc… He said in reply, “nope. I’m sticking with the Bible.” Reincarnation is not in the Bible. In fact there are several verses that make it clear otherwise. But at that point I realized it was not a conversation that was going anywhere so I did not publish it.
Anyway, when I see people proof-texting like this, what I really wanted to say is, “So do you still have hands? Because the Bible says cut off your hands if you lust. It’s right there. If you don’t look at Scripture in context and interpret it by its genre and want to take it literally, then…you should have no hands. Because I’m sure you’ve lusted once or twice in the entirety of your life.
And that would have been accurate. If you take the Bible outside of interpretation, then every poetic phrase is literal, every apocalyptic description is literal, and there is no other genre in the history of mankind except literal statements. No poetry. No hyperbole. No description. No nothing.
Ok, back for a minute. Most people do not get into a fit over the Elijah Scripture. But what about he divorce Scripture coming up? People will absolutely jump on what Jesus says in a couple of verses from now and hold onto it rigidly. Woman getting beat up on a regular basis to the point she has almost died? A pastor will tell her she can never divorce because it will make her an adulteress and she will go to hell. Many women have died because of advice like this. But more later.
The big picture is this. Jesus says to take lust seriously. He isn’t necessarily saying literally cut off your hands. But he is using shock language, just like he has throughout the Sermon on the Mount, to wake us up that lust is not something to make a game of and laugh off. We are to take it seriously.
