G.a.p. - Matthew 5:29-30 (Cont’d) Series

Matthew 5:27-30 "You have heard that it was said, 'Do 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 sin, 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 sin, 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.

1) Prefer What is Better

Jesus teaches us here to amputate and fling away that part of us that is in charge of sinful looking. It is not your physical eye that looks the wrong way – it is something in your inner man. And that part of your soul that wants to look at a person or object in such a way that turns a little impulse into a powerful craving – Jesus tells us to rip that part of you out and throw it away. So before moving on to the next verse in the Sermon on the Mount we are taking a little extra time to think through exactly how that is done.

The first clue we covered last week – it is found in that word better in verses 29-30. Greedy, covetous looking promises to bring us pleasure and satisfaction, and so we are reluctant to give it up – we do not want to let go of that pleasure. But Jesus here says there is something better. What is it? Answer: The only alternative to hell – receiving spiritual life from God. Wellness, wholeness – contentment, joy, satisfaction, courage, comfort, strength, insight, the ability to enjoy good things – all the various aspects of spiritual life and wellness. That is what is better and more satisfying than the pleasure of sin. It is for more satisfying to be full of joy and hope and comfort and strength and miss out on looking at a woman than to get the thrill of looking but not have joy and hope and comfort and strength and all the rest. (And it is not just more satisfying in the future; it is more satisfying right now.)

Last week I talked about how to train our souls to prefer the presence of God over the pleasures of sin in our affections and emotions. It happens when we experience fellowship and communion with God in every part of life – your devotions, your ministry, your work, your play, your marriage – everything. Anytime you do anything in life that does not result in you coming away with a sense of satisfaction of soul, that thing was a failure, because every successful attempt at fellowship with God results in satisfaction of the appetites of the soul. Everything we ever do all day long should be an attempt at fellowship with God, which means anything you ever do that does not cause you to come away satisfied, encouraged, strengthened, delighted, or built up in some other aspect of spiritual life and wellness of soul, is a failure - a failed attempt at fellowship with God.

Glorifies God

So, we fight sinful desire with greater desire and there are a number of benefits to fighting sin that way. The most important is the fact that it glorifies God rather than us. If I just resist sin out of sheer willpower, that honors me. But if I resist it because I prefer fellowship with God to the pleasure of that sin, that honors God.

Generates Joy

Secondly, it is a good approach because it results in joy rather than frustration. If you live your life constantly trying to say no to what you really want the most, that is a life of frustration. If you live your life picking your favorite thing off the menu of options, that is a life of joy.

Produces Gratitude instead of Self-Pity

I mentioned those two last week; now let me add a third benefit to this approach. It generates humility and love for God rather than self-pity and resentment against God. If you have to constantly miss out on what you really want because of God, that can easily push you toward resentment in your heart toward God. You start thinking about God as that one who is constantly depriving you.

Or if it does not push you toward resentment, it will push you in the direction of self-pity. Every time you say no to what you really want because of God, it will make you feel like you are suffering a loss for His sake, and now He owes you one. When godly living means saying no to what you really prefer rather than saying yes to what you really prefer, righteousness becomes burdensome. It is just loss after loss after loss all day long. And when it feels that way to you, the more you do it the more you will tend toward feeling sorry for yourself because of how much you are giving to God. And the result will be a sense of entitlement. I have said no so many times, I have given up so much for God, I have been so good – I deserve a break. I deserve a…treat. I deserve some pleasure. I put up with so much – I deserve this little indulgence. I heard a quotation last week from a famous evangelical pastor who had to step down because of an adulterous affair. They asked him why it happened and he said, “It was a point in my ministry when I was more weary than I ever was in my life and more burdened under the pressures of leadership...” He was carrying out ministry in a way that was burdensome to him, and that sense of being burdened led to a degree of self-pity that ended in him committing adultery.