26 SEP 23 Tuesday: A Closer Walk Devotional
“You have heard the commandment that says, ‘You must not commit adultery.’ But I say anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Matthew 5:27-28
When I was a boy, I was in the scouts and my Dad used to give me nuggets of wisdom. When we would go camping or work on merit badges, there were new skills to be learned and cautions that came with them. Once we set up camp, we would gather wood for the fire. As a young kid, I was fascinated by fire and the fact that we were going to be taught how to start one.
As the fire got going, we were always tempted to wave a lit branch around or do foolishness with other scouts. Go figure. My Dad would calmly tell us, ‘If you play with fire you are going to get burnt’. Sure enough, someone would not heed the wise words, someone did get burnt. Someone’s mistake leads to another merit badge, first aid. Wise words are meant to save ourselves some pain.
Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, unpacks and expands the spirit of the law. (The Ten Commandments) Our thought life leads to sin, in and of itself can be sin. He tells us to deal with it harshly or drastically. If your eye causes you to sin, cut it out. He is not telling us to perform self-mutilation, but to cut lust and adultery out of our lives.
Sins of lust and adultery are an epic failure of dishonoring yourself, your neighbor, your community or nation, and God. Lust is like fire, if you mess with it, you will get burnt. These words while strong are meant to set a plumbline of holiness and godliness, a set of character traits important for everyone.
Are you playing with the fire of lust and adultery?
Reading Plan: Psalm 78:1-39; 2 Kings. 5:19-27; 1 Cor. 5: 1-8; Matt. 5:27-37
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