The Seven Deadly Sins #4
Lust
“…anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
I hear that the sexual revolution was fun. I spent the 1960s in school starting at home and ending with college graduation in 1969. I watched it on television, read about it in magazines, but it didn’t penetrate my world in any meaningful way. Over that turbulent and highly romanticized decade I was able to establish an interest in the opposite sex, go on dates, find a mate and get married. I can’t imagine needing any help from the progressive left to enhance my already fully operational lust.
But I do know that over the last fifty years that the sexual revolution has been successful. At least In that thin slice of Americana called the cultural elites, the educated class. They don’t like trickle-down economics but, do believe in trickle-down decadence. Remarkably, the elite culture of America is still largely conventional. They get married, have children, and continue to operate in a protected bubble provided by their wealth and cultural power. They fly private, live in communities with private security, and operate a very segregated life into which you which you may only enter by having the proper funding or ideology but, there are many hidden traps. Much like the Climate Change Religious Cult, progressive elites live as though there is abundant evidence to support their orthodoxy, but their computer models and predictions have formed a vast graveyard of wrong prophetic mistakes. If their scientists were Old Testament prophets, they all would need to be stoned.
One can pretend that the sexual revolution and a life of unchecked lust works and helps people, but the opposite has happened. The middle class is under siege, and the racially diverse underclass is suffering from the elite’s philosophies that have created unworkable policies and crime ridden cities from which people are fleeing. Being a rich and well connected Marxist is only possible in a wealthy capitalistic society. It creates the worst kind of self-righteous prigs who preach climate change, then jet off over the horizon to their vacation home. Their wealth made it workable to live a “coked out” life of excess at Club 54 in NYC, until assigned probation by the court or went into rehab in the Hamptons or Martha’s Vineyard. The educated played to excess with a protective net to catch their fall.
At the same time, their policies make it nearly impossible for the middle class to own a home, educate their children in a safe environment, and stay married. Elites, tabloid headlines aside, created stable families, got married and stayed married much more than the poor. Their attempts to help others by creating a climate of victimhood has created the greatest degradation of the family, the quality of home life for children, and locked the majority of poor in a welfare system that has sentenced them to generations of subservience.
The greatest predictor for young people’s ability to succeed is a solid two parent home. The divorce rate and the percentage of single women raising children alone, has never been higher. Add to this the rising crime rate and the lack of will on the part of politicians to police and prosecute local crime, which has combined to sentence the next generation of the young and unprotected to a life of failure and drug addiction. Yet, the progressive left’s crusade goes on unabated like it is working and like it is true. We all must remember this—victims do not lead, victims are not brave, you can’t count on victims as long as they remain victims. The elite’s lust for power has destroyed normal life for everyone else.
They, in effect are saying, you, general populace, live with less and we get more! More power, more wealth, more of a world that we can control. The sexual revolution was the easiest way to get their way because sexual freedom is very appealing. It’s fun, so why not get as much as you can, when you can, and worry about the rest later.
All this nonsense will end when we implode under the weight of our own decadence and we have to fight for our survival. By then we will be too weak to win, thus, history repeats itself. Babylon, the Persians, Greece, Rome, the Soviet Union, and many a lessor power have failed because, as a people, they failed. We will only tinker with perfection while we are rich and safe, and when that is gone, we are gone. The progressive left is no longer the revolutionaries, they own the culture, they run the government, they control major industries.
The new revolutionaries are Christians and those with a Biblical world view. The old sexual revolution has been won by the progressives—now for the new revolution—the one that is quite a bit difference and one that cleans up after itself.
Another Approach to the Sexual Revolution
Men have always been sexually aggressive, that is why most Bible studies on lust are addressed to men. Rarely will you hear a ripping sermon at a women’s conference called, “Ladies, Stop Lusting, resist that uncontrollable urge to merge with everything that moves.” No, it’s usually a talk on how to understand that raging bull known as your boyfriend or husband. But the sexual revolution changed all of that, at least on the surface. The feminist movement said, “Ladies, become more like men. Men sleep around, you should sleep around. Men get drunk and do crazy things, so should you.” This is a new sexual age, men and women are equal, and you can be equally as disgusting and irresponsible as the guys. You have birth control, and if that doesn’t work, you can kill the baby. You can live a full, free, and fun life, get drunk, sleep around, get pregnant, kill the baby, it will be a wonderful life.” [1]
Now for the new revolution.
“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. So if your eye—even your good eye—causes you to lust, 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 hand—even your stronger hand—causes you to sin, 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 be thrown into hell.” [2]
Jesus launches his revolutionary idea about true sexual freedom by referring to the Old Testament sex ethic. “You must not commit adultery.” The theme of the entire Sermon on The Mount is found in Matthew 5:20, “But I warn you—unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!” In other words, your spiritual life must come from inside you, very deep inside of you, and that righteousness is not earned, it is not from yourbetter nature, it is from something only I, God can provide for you.
To go both higher and deeper, Jesus upgrades it by saying, no sex outside of marriage! No sex outside the covenant that exists in marriage. Covenant is a category higher and deeper than a contract, agreement, or handshake. It is a lifetime commitment to another person. It is based on our commitment to God and on the integrity of both parties’ trust in God and in each other. A contract says, “I will get the most for myself in the negotiations regarding the relationship.” And when it is over, when I no longer benefit, I’m out! In the covenant of marriage each are saying, “I will adjust to you.” We move into a secure zone, no longer needing to use sex as marketing or campaigning for the position of husband or wife. No more spinning or selling. This is why co-habitation is an insult to the person you are living with. “I haven’t made up my mind about you yet, so I will live with and use you because perhaps I will find a better option.”
In the covenant of marriage, the husband gives himself to his wife and she to him. No one is keeping score, at least on most days. You actually get the most when you give the most. But breaking through the barrier of keeping score is necessary to get there. Then, there are children. Parents give, give, and give some more, and never give up no matter how hard it gets. The kids can never catch up, no matter how hard they try, kids will always be in a deficit position with the parents. The beauty of it is that parents never stop giving until they breath their last. Quite often, parents require outside intervention to keep them from giving too much— especially when it comes to grandchildren—but for most grandparents, the only way to stop them is to seal the casket and put them in the ground and cover them up with dirt. Google John Rosemond for advice on parenting—he’s on Substack, too.
In the covenant context there is true sexual freedom. When you make the promise, you say your vows and sex becomes a sacrament. It becomes a physical symbol of a spiritual reality, of oneness. In marriage I am giving my whole life to another person. And as partners age, performance can wane, but satisfaction can increase because of the intangibles. It continues to provide life’s greatest consolation, that being the love and adoration of your most precious and dearest friend. You may think this unrealistic. You may lament your present state, you may have been betrayed by a spouse, these are all possible outcomes. But let’s look a bit deeper at what Jesus called lust.
What does it mean to “lust” after another person?
The word Jesus used was επιθυμησαι, which means craving. It has a relationship to greed, to wanting to have what is not yours. It includes fantasy, longing, and being self-absorbed. Often, in our time, enhanced by pornography. In Jesus’ time there was ample time and occasion for men to indulge their sexual fantasies, but more in real time with real women than today, with the alternative of the internet. It means much more than attraction. It is also quite separate than to acknowledge the beauty of another person. Beauty is, in fact, evidence of God’s beauty. Of course, through jest and casual comment, a woman’s beauty can be used for baser reasons. But to be attracted to another person is not a sin and not what Jesus is talking about. Jesus is talking about “I’ve got to have that. I will have that!” Then, instigating a fantasy life and even a strategy, or worse, a stalker mentality. This is particularly damaging when it begins to damage and dull the affection and desire for one’s own spouse. It threatens the covenant and everyone who lives under the protection of that covenant.
Drastic Action
Jesus said when you get caught up in lust, take radical action. It is obvious that he doesn’t want people to cut off their hands or pluck out their eyes. But whether it be a real person or a creation of the internet, the danger of fantasy is that it destroys the real. Here is what fantasy and lust can do to damage a person, a family, a community, a culture:
· Creates unrealistic expectation
I recall a woman in divorce proceedings who, while she remained attracted to her former partner, she wasn’t willing to become a “French whore” to stay married. Her husband had watched so much pornography on screen that he thought his wife should perform acts that he had grown to see as normal. This included other partners for three-way sexual experiences and orgies.
· Diminishes interest in normal relationship of marriage
This refers to not wanting to be with each other, not doing normal family activities, and not having the simple enjoyment of each other’s company.
· The woman forced to dress like his fantasy women.
This kind of behavior began with husband buying clothes and outfits for his wife that he found provocative and that looked good on others about whom he was daydreaming.
Don’t go to Hell!
This belies the idea that pornography is a victimless crime for adults because it threatens to destroy the covenant of marriage. Jesus says it is better to rid yourselves of this problem by taking radical action than have your “whole body to be thrown into hell”—your entire body, your spouse, your children, your career, your community—all cast into hell with you. You’re the whole body in Hell is an image γεενναν, a word with a history. It was the garbage dump outside of Jerusalem. It was this place that produced the frightening phrase from the lips of Jesus, “where the maggots never die and fire never goes out.”[3]
Hell is real, but I don’t believe Jesus is describing the ultimate Hell as a garbage dump. The real Hell, the final Hell is a place created by God, therefore it is good! God reigns in Hell. He guards his repository for evil and evil’s founders, Lucifer and his legions.
Jesus created it for the devil and his angels. [4] In the parable those who claim knowledge of God but don’t live it, who lie about it, are thrown into this Hell with the Devil and his angels when it is all said and done. And when they protest Jesus’ answer is chilling,
And he will answer, ’I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.’ And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life.” Matthew 25:45,46
Hell is the end of God’s mercy. Until our last breath, he is ready to forgive and we can enter in. We repent of our sins and acknowledge our need. But as scripture says, “It is appointed for every person, once to die. And after that the judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27) After that God’s mercy is closed, we are shut off from his mercy, from repentance, and many will be locked up in Hell and won’t be able to get out.
I know we have conveniently dropped this teaching from our churches in recent years. But we have no reason to think God has dropped it. And think of this way, I love C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce and his fantasy depiction of Hell. He mentions that Hell’s gates are locked from the inside and they get out on weekends to visit earth and ride buses toward heaven, a wonderfully contrived tale it is. I so wish it were true, but that is not going to scare one person outside of Christ. I think one of the reasons that the church is waning is that without Hell and the exclusiveness of Jesus, and the standards for sexual morality, there is nothing at stake with the church, at the church, or because of the church. So why bother?
Bill Hull
August 2023
[1] Andrew Klavan, Speech @ Iowa State University, 2022.
[2] Matthew 5:27-30 New Living Translation
[3] Mark 9:48 NLT.
[4] Matthew 25:41
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