Kill Sin Or Die - Matthew 5:29-30 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.

Introduction

Imagine you are exploring a dark and dangerous cave. It is so dangerous that most of the people who have tried to go through it were killed in the process and never made it out. So you were already pretty nervous, but then the unthinkable happens – your lights go out. Now you have to try to make your way in pitch blackness. You are tense and on edge, and every time a little drip of water drops on you, you just about freak out, because you don’t know if it is a black widow or some poisonous spider or what. And as you are feeling your way along, suddenly your whole being is filled with terror. Something dropped down on you and it is a lot bigger than a spider. It is biting you – hard. And in that split second you don’t know if it is a large rat or something more deadly – like a wolverine. And in a fit of panic you grab whatever it is and fling it away from you as hard as you possibly can.

That kind of throwing – taking something you are utterly repulsed by and throwing it as hard as you can to get it as far away from you as possible –is exactly what is meant by the word in Matthew.5:29 where Jesus says, “Throw it away.” That word throw is at the heart of this whole passage. I just told you a scary story that ended with some deadly thing threatening your life and you grabbing it and flinging it away as hard as you can. Jesus tells the same story in this text. He is going to warn us about something that is on you, that is biting you, and that will kill you if you don’t fling it away from you.

We have been studying through the Sermon on the Mount. And ever since verse 20 Jesus has been talking about why the righteousness of the Pharisees and Scribes is so inadequate. Right off the bat He shows that they are guilty of both murder and adultery. Even though they had not killed anyone or slept with anyone outside of marriage, they were still guilty because they committed both sins in their hearts by being angry and by looking in order to lust.

Matthew 5:28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman in order to lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Modesty

Last week we explored what that means – that looking in a way that results in desire being awakened or stimulated is adultery. (Or if you are single it is fornication.) That kind of looking belongs within marriage alone, and outside of marriage it is a very serious sin – so serious that Jesus says it places your soul in danger of hell. So once again we stand indicted right alongside the Pharisees.

But Jesus does not just indict. He does not just point out the problem; He also gives a solution. However before we get to the solution there is one more thing we need to cover. We talked last time from the perspective of the man doing the looking, but there are also some things we need to know about the woman who is being looked at.

You might think at first that eye adultery is a one-sided kind of sexual sin. But that often is not the case. If a woman dresses immodestly, she is guilty as well.

1 Timothy 2:9 I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety

The command about not looking in order to lust is directed mainly at men, and the command to dress modestly is directed mainly at women, because men and women are different. One writer said men are mainly tempted to use pornography; women are mainly tempted to commit pornography. They commit pornography by dressing immodestly – by dressing in a way that makes it especially hard for the men.

And given the seriousness of this sin for men, it is not hard to understand why it is such an unloving thing for women to dress that way. If there is a man in this church who is struggling to remain faithful with his eyes, how do you think God would feel about a woman who made herself a temptation by the way she dresses so that it is now harder for that man to control his eyes? And as a result of the way she dresses, the men fall into sin more often?