Matthew 5:27-32
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 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. 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. “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
I’d be lying if I said I was looking forward to this sermon. This is a really difficult topic and people have abused this passage in many ways over the years to justify what they’d like to do or weaponize it against others. Before unpacking what Jesus is getting at in this teaching, we need to remember the context of the sermon and Jesus’s aim. But first, some disclaimers:
First, this passage is a quick go to for people looking for a “Biblical ground for divorce.” The issue of pornography and problems it causes for marriages should never be downplayed but what is often said here is, “Jesus says that lust is the same as the action of adultery. Therefore, adultery was committed, and we now have grounds for divorce.” Applying this logic is dangerous, especially since we do not use the same logic regarding Jesus’s teachings on anger, name calling, and murder. Please do not hear me say that pornography is not a major issue. It is. But let’s be careful how this passage can be taken out of context.
Second, this is not a passage about extreme asceticism where a person abuses themselves as a show of outward piety. We need to note that Jesus is being hyperbolic when he calls for the plucking of eyes and cutting off of hands. He is calling for seriousness in how these issues are addressed. You can cut out both of your eyes and still struggle with lust. The issue comes down to the heart.
The context of the Sermon on the Mount is Jesus calling his followers to become a community that works as salt and light in the world. Sex is a beautiful gift God has given us, but we live in a culture where sex is cheapened to the fulfilling one’s own selfish desires. Sex is the most intimate of connections at the center of married life. When it is cheapened to simply being about pleasure it becomes a prize to be sought after rather than a gift shared. The church has not always done a great job about talking about sex and the culture has dominated the conversation. We often end up in a position of speaking against rather than advocating for.
The ancient world, in which the New Testament was written, was wild. I won’t go into all of the details, but we will just say that men in the Roman empire were encouraged to seek pleasure by any means possible. Use your imagination and then go three steps further (Rom 13:12-14; Gal 5:19-21; 1 Pet 4:3-4). The ancient world permitted men to pursue pleasure by any means possible and was often oppressive to women. Jewish sexual ethics were counter to that culture though the nod was still given to men to have power over women regarding divorce and sexuality. Most of the New Testament writings are seen as sexually oppressive but are liberating to women of the day because they call men to the same ethic. The trouble is that we’ve often placed the burden of sexual purity on the (covered) shoulders of women while dismissing the actions of men under the guise of “boys will be boys.” What does a Salt and Light community look like that teaches men to treat women with respect, beginning in the privacy of their home looking at their phones?
Jesus’s teachings in this passage can and should be applied to other aspects of life. Law following often focus on the outward appearance of a person, but Jesus addresses the issue of heart transformation. How seriously do you consider what content you take into your eyes and ears? This isn’t about hearing a curse word and worrying about saying the word sometime in life. This is about toxic speech, images of hate, scenes of diminished sexuality, graphic violence, etc. How do these things shape your view of the world. There is not a blanket rule here for what kind of movies a Christian should watch but a calling to protect the transformation of your heart through what you see and hear. That being said, anything that dehumanizes a person and makes them an object for your enjoyment (even if they agree to it) is unfit for a Christian to consume because it is toxic to the transformation of the heart.
When it comes to helping other men with the struggles of pornography, I often look to Matthew 12:43-45 as a model for what Jesus is talking about in today’s passage. Put the house in order by blocking sites on your phone, get an accountability partner, and do everything you can to stop consuming toxic imagery. But if you do not do anything to fill the house with God, the issue will always make its way back. This is true for other areas in our lives. Don’t just focus on what you’re cutting out but focus on what you are being filled with for the sake of holistic transformation.