The Sermons of Jesus, 9

Today Ol’ Fuzzy will have to be short. Got things to do all afternoon and got online half an hour late. Please accept my apologies.

I am going to work on only two verses today. But they’re very important to our society in these times.

“27 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: 28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.”

The Greek word rendered commit adultery, μοιχεύω, denotes sexual relations between people who are not married to each other. That is a broader definition than the English word adultery. Adultery in English is sex between two or more people when one or more of them is married to another not involved. For other forms of μοιχεύω, the English language uses the word fornication. But the Greek word that is often rendered fornication, πορνεία, refers to any sexual deviation from that which is acceptable in the Law.This is the word from which our English word Pornography is derived.

Jesus goes one step further in the discourse. He says just intending to lust after someone we look at is adultery in the heart. This is very heavy because in our current social mores we try to get as many other people to lust after us as we can, and intend to lust after everyone we see. We are all guilty of adultery in the eyes of God.

The principle Jesus establishes here, that the intent is what is important, is reflected again in every teaching He gives on sin. The Pharisees were strict on outward compliance with the letter of the Law while in their hearts they would hold grudges and lust as much as the rest of us. Jesus complimented their righteousness, as far as it went, but as we saw in the previous post, their righteousness will not get them into heaven. We do have to guard our hearts, that our intentions are pure. Then our actions will naturally follow.

I will do more on the subject of sexual immorality, and modern amorality, in a future post after I finish with the sermons of Jesus.

Ol’ Fuzzy is not employable and was denied for disability benefits. The only thing I have is the blogs. But I don’t qualify for ads on the blogs until September. If you like the scribbles I post, please help me keep it going. You can leave me a gratuity by dropping a buck or two in Ol' Fuzzy's Tip Jar. This is a PayPal account I opened on Wednesday, April 5, 2017.