“You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY’; but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5:27-28)

The seventh commandment protects the sanctity of marriage, and anyone who relies on external righteousness to keep it is prone to break it.

Just as anger equals murder, lustful desire equals adultery. In Jesus’ admonition, “looks” indicates intentional and repeated gazing.

Therefore He means purposeful looking that arouses lust. In contemporary terms, it condemns a man who sees an X-rated movie, watches a salacious television show, or visits pornographic websites.

It encompasses any thought or action done to arouse sexual desire. Jesus is not referring to accidental exposure to sexual temptation. It is no sin if a man looks away from a provocative scene.

It is the continued look that Christ condemns, because that demonstrates an adulterous heart. And by inference this prohibition would apply to women also, who mud not gaze at men or dress in seductive ways to elicit stares.

In earliest redemptive history, Job understood these principles: “I have made a covenant with my eyes, how then could I gaze at a virgin? … If my step has turned from the way, or my heart followed my eyes, or if any spot has stuck to my hands, let me sow and another eat, and let my crops be uprooted” (Job 31:1, 7-8).

If the adulterous heart gives in to temptation, the godly heart will protect itself, praying, “Turn away my eyes from looking at vanity, and revive me in Your ways. Establish Your word to Your servant, as that which produces reverence for You” (Psalm 119:37-38; cf. 2 Timothy 2:22).[1]

John MacArthur

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End notes:

[1] John MacArthur, Daily Readings From the Life of Christ [Chicago: Moody, 2008], April 20.

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