Jesus moves the commandment from the surface to the center. “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” (Matthew 5:27–28). In a few sentences He presses beyond behavior into desire, beyond what can be prosecuted in court to what is weighed before God. The seventh commandment stands, but Jesus lays bare its root: a heart that either honors covenant love or feeds self-centered craving (Exodus 20:14; Deuteronomy 5:18).
He does not stop with definition; He adds urgency. If the eye or the hand becomes a pathway into sin, it is better to part with what feels essential than to drift toward ruin, because sin, coddled, destroys. The language is sharp by design. Jesus uses surgical hyperbole to demand decisive action, not literal mutilation, because the true battleground is the inner person where desire is born and either put to death or nursed to life (Matthew 5:29–30; Colossians 3:5).
Words: 2715 / Time to read: 14 minutes
Historical and Cultural Background
Israel knew the sanctity of marriage as a covenant God designed to guard life and to picture His faithfulness. Adultery violated that covenant and carried penalties that underscored how seriously God protects the family and the vulnerable it shelters (Exodus 20:14; Deuteronomy 22:22). The law built fences for life together: modesty in public spaces, respect for another’s household, and courts that upheld justice without favoritism, because the Lord Himself is a witness between a husband and wife and holds His people to His own truthfulness and loyalty (Deuteronomy 24:1–4; Malachi 2:14–16).
Long before Jesus preached in Galilee, wisdom warned that desire begins in the heart and flows through the eyes and the imagination. “Do not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes,” says the father to the son, because this slow-burning fire ends in scars that do not fade quickly (Proverbs 6:25). Job’s resolve to make “a covenant with my eyes” shows that guarding sight lines is ancient wisdom, not a modern invention, and it is aimed at trusting God with desire rather than letting desire run the household (Job 31:1).
In the first century, rabbinic debates sometimes narrowed righteousness to what could be counted or charged, leaving inner life to drift. Jesus rejects that narrowness. He lifts the seventh commandment into the light of God’s intention and declares that the heart is already in the verdict’s scope. The crowds knew temple courts and sacrifices; Jesus tells a people familiar with offerings that holiness begins long before the altar and reaches the secret places no priest can see (Matthew 5:23–24; Psalm 51:6).
Reading this with a dispensational lens helps us keep setting and scope clear. Jesus speaks within Israel’s covenant world, yet He is inaugurating the kingdom and preparing a multi-ethnic church to live the moral heart of God’s will under the law of Christ, not under Israel’s civil and ceremonial codes (Jeremiah 31:31–33; Galatians 6:2). The altar will yield to a once-for-all sacrifice, but the call to inner purity will intensify as the Spirit is poured out to write God’s law on minds and hearts for everyday life among the nations (Hebrews 10:12–16; Acts 2:17).
Biblical Narrative
Scripture’s story shows both the wreckage of lust and the mercy that restores. David, who should have been at war, stayed home, saw Bathsheba, desired, sent, and took; then he hid and hardened until the Lord sent Nathan to expose what desire had sown. David confessed, “I have sinned against the LORD,” and found that while grace cancels guilt, sin still has consequences that echo through a household (2 Samuel 11:1–5; 2 Samuel 12:7–13). Samson followed his eyes into entanglements that drained his strength and dimmed his sight until repentance came through tears and a final prayer (Judges 16:1–21; Judges 16:28–30). These stories are not tabloid additions; they are warnings and windows into the heart that Jesus addresses (1 Corinthians 10:6–12).
But Scripture also gives bright examples. Joseph, cornered by Potiphar’s wife, refused not because he lacked capacity to sin but because he could not “do such a wicked thing and sin against God,” and he fled rather than negotiate with temptation (Genesis 39:9–12). The psalmist asks how a young person can stay on the path of purity and answers, “By living according to your word,” then adds that storing God’s word in the heart keeps sin from gaining a foothold (Psalm 119:9–11). Wisdom keeps close counsel with worship and with flight when needed.
Jesus’s words in the Sermon on the Mount gather these threads. He makes clear that the look which cultivates desire is not neutral but culpable. He speaks of the eye and the hand because sight and touch are common gateways the heart recruits in sin’s service. He warns of Gehenna because desire and destiny are not unrelated; seeds grow into harvests, and God loves us enough to raise the alarm when we walk toward a cliff with soft steps (Matthew 5:28–30; James 1:14–15). At the same time He invites a better way. He calls the pure in heart blessed with the promise that “they will see God,” a vision more satisfying than any counterfeit and a path worth any cost (Matthew 5:8; Psalm 16:11).
The apostles develop the same ethic for the church age. Paul writes that “it is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality,” and he ties holiness to honoring one’s own body in a way that is distinct from pagan passion and that shows reverence for God who gives His Holy Spirit (1 Thessalonians 4:3–8). He commands believers to flee sexual immorality because the body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, bought at a price, and made for the Lord’s glory rather than for self-indulgence (1 Corinthians 6:18–20). He urges the putting to death of impurity and lust, naming them as idolatry because they demand worship that belongs to God alone (Colossians 3:5). Peter calls Christians to abstain from sinful desires which wage war against the soul, an image that explains both the fatigue and the need for watchfulness (1 Peter 2:11).
Grace runs through these commands. John assures the church that if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive and to cleanse, making honest light a place of healing rather than of shame (1 John 1:7–9). Jesus Himself, when faced with a woman caught in adultery, did not deny the weight of sin but sent her away with both mercy and mandate: “Go now and leave your life of sin,” a sentence that holds pardon and purity together without compromise (John 8:11). The gospel does not wink at lust; it breaks its chain and trains the will toward holiness by love (Titus 2:11–12).
Theological Significance
Jesus’s exposition of the seventh commandment reveals what the law always aimed at: love shaped by holiness from the inside out. The Mosaic covenant restrained sin and taught righteousness, yet it could not change the heart; the new covenant provides what the old demanded by giving new hearts and the Holy Spirit, so that the “righteous requirement of the law” is fulfilled in those who walk according to the Spirit (Jeremiah 31:33; Romans 8:3–4). When Jesus equates heart-lust with adultery, He is not creating a new code so much as He is unveiling God’s original design and promising the power to live it through union with Him (Matthew 5:28; John 15:5).
This matters for how we read commands today. The church is not under Israel’s civil penalties or ceremonial system, but it is not lawless. Believers live under the law of Christ, which gathers the moral will of God, interprets it through the cross, and empowers it by the Spirit. That is why Paul can say that “love is the fulfillment of the law,” and also command concrete sexual holiness inside the body of Christ (Galatians 6:2; Romans 13:8–10; 1 Corinthians 6:18–20). Dispensational clarity keeps Israel and the church distinct while honoring a single moral center that runs from Law to Prophets to Christ and into the present age.
The warnings Jesus gives are real. He speaks of hell because the path of cherished lust aligns with a rejection of God and unrepentance that cannot coexist with saving faith. While those who belong to Christ are secure in His hand, the security He gives does not make warnings empty; it makes them effective means by which the Shepherd keeps His own from wandering into destruction (John 10:28–29; Hebrews 3:12–14). Assurance and vigilance travel together in Scripture, and both are grace.
Purity is not prudishness; it is joy properly ordered. God created desire and channelled it into covenant love where self-giving produces life. Lust bends that gift back on self and reduces persons to objects and covenant to consumption, a move that darkens understanding and hardens the heart if left unchecked (Ephesians 4:17–19). Holiness restores desire to worship, devotion, and marital fidelity that mirrors Christ’s love for the church, a mystery that lifts the conversation far above rule-keeping into doxology (Ephesians 5:25–32).
There is also a future pull to purity. “We know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is,” John writes, and then adds, “All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure” (1 John 3:2–3). Eschatology fuels ethics. The coming kingdom, where the Lamb’s bride is clothed in “righteous acts of God’s holy people,” calls believers now to refuse the lies of lust and to dress their lives in deeds that fit the wedding (Revelation 19:7–8). The Spirit uses hope to loosen sin’s hold and to steady obedience.
Spiritual Lessons and Application
Guarding the heart begins with seeing what Jesus sees. The look that lingers to kindle desire is not harmless entertainment but the start of a story that ends poorly if not interrupted. Naming that honestly before God breaks the spell and opens the way to mercy. Prayer becomes practical at that point: “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me,” not as poetry only, but as a daily plea that expects God to answer with clean desires and new habits (Psalm 51:10; Philippians 4:6–7).
Because the battleground often runs through the eyes and imagination, wisdom plans ahead. Some believers choose to rearrange their media environment, to change times and places where vulnerability is high, to keep devices out of private spaces, or to invite accountability into their patterns, not to earn favor but to make holiness humane. Scripture calls this “fleeing” rather than flirting. Joseph’s sprint from temptation was not cowardice; it was courage that trusted God with the fallout (Genesis 39:12; 2 Timothy 2:22). Such practical steps are not the power itself; they are doors the Spirit loves to use.
Feeding the mind with better food matters. Paul directs the church to think about what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy, because the mind does not thrive on a starvation diet. What fills imagination shapes desire, and what shapes desire guides choices in the pinch (Philippians 4:8; Romans 12:2). Memorizing and meditating on Scripture keeps a ready answer nearby when old patterns knock. “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you” is strategy as well as devotion (Psalm 119:11).
Community is part of God’s design for purity. Confessing sins to one another and praying for one another brings healing into places secrecy keeps sick, and it replaces the shame cycle with grace that tells the truth and walks together (James 5:16; Galatians 6:1–2). Older saints can help younger ones learn wisdom in dating, engagement, and marriage. Married believers honor each other with affection and exclusivity that reflects Christ’s covenant, while single believers honor Christ with chaste devotion and contentment that leans on the Lord for strength in the long stretches (1 Corinthians 7:3–5; 1 Corinthians 7:32–35).
Where failure has marked the past, the gospel offers more than a clean slate; it offers a new heart and a new start. David’s repentance led to restored joy and renewed usefulness; Peter’s bitter weeping after denial led to breakfast on a beach and a commission to feed Christ’s sheep (Psalm 51:12–13; John 21:15–17). “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us,” which means the story does not end with shame when it is brought into the light (1 John 1:9). Grace does not minimize sin; it maximizes Christ’s sufficiency and sets people on their feet to walk in the light.
Some will ask about “righteous anger” and “righteous desire.” Scripture makes room for rightly ordered desire within marriage as a good gift and commands spouses to honor that bond with tenderness and fidelity. It also warns against stirring up love before it so desires and against awakening desires that will not be stewarded toward covenant (Proverbs 5:18–19; Song of Songs 8:4). Wisdom here is not fear of desire but fear of misdirected desire. The Spirit teaches disciplines of body and mind that keep desire a servant rather than a master (1 Corinthians 9:27; Galatians 5:16).
Finally, purity is a glad yes to God more than a grim no to sin. The Father is not trying to take something good away; He is leading His children toward the joy that lasts. “No good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless,” the psalmist sings, and Jesus echoes that the Father loves to give good gifts to those who ask Him (Psalm 84:11; Matthew 7:11). Asking, seeking, and knocking are not merely about provision; they are about holiness too. God delights to answer prayers for clean hearts, clear eyes, and a steadfast spirit with Himself.
Conclusion
Jesus’s words about lust and purity expose the heart and offer hope. The commandment against adultery stands, and its reach includes the inner gaze and the hidden script we run when no one is watching (Matthew 5:27–28). The warnings are as serious as hell because the stakes include life with God or life curved in on self (Matthew 5:29–30). Yet the invitations are as bright as heaven. The pure in heart will see God, the forgiven will be cleansed, and the Spirit will write a new law within so that the very desires that once dragged the soul downward are replaced by love that guards the covenant and honors the Lord (Matthew 5:8; 1 John 1:9; Romans 8:4).
For kingdom citizens, this means choosing decisive action, honest confession, and hopeful endurance. It means trusting that God’s design for desire is good, that His warnings are kindness, and that His power is enough for ordinary saints who stumble and stand again. It means living today with eyes set on the appearing of Christ, purifying ourselves because we belong to Him and because we long to see His face, a sight that will make every costly choice seem small by comparison (1 John 3:2–3; Revelation 22:4).
“It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable… For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.” (1 Thessalonians 4:3–5, 7)
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For Further Reference: A Detailed Study on the Entire Sermon on the Mount