Adultry / commandment / sin question?

Question

The commandment says you shall not commit adultry - That means if you are married, you don't do it with someone else right?

but Jesus said if you look at a woman and lust for her, you have already commited adultry in your heart?

but is he saying if you are married and look upon a woman you have commited adultry in your heart, or even if a single person looks, they have commited adultry in there heart?

Answer 1

Remember the KEY word in what Jesus said, "But I say unto you whosoever looks on a woman to LUST after her, he has committed adultry with her in his heart already." Matt. 5:28 Apparantly it doesn't matter if you're married or not. Lust leads to sin. Paul said to flee fornication. That's sex without marriage. Sin.

Answer 2

I think you have to be a little more objective with this. As a happily married woman, I say that it's completely normal to still "see" other men/women and find them attractive. You can't help the way you feel. You CAN, however, control how you react. It's one thing to see an attractive person and think "wow...they're really hot," then move on. It's another to see that person than obsess over it.

Adultery is not always physical. It's definitely possible to carry on an emotional affair - it's normal to have feelings and reactions towards other people. It's considered "adultery," though, when you act upon them. I think Jesus took it one step further just to emphasis that by having the thoughts you're already on the path toward committing a sin - so be wary and stand strong.

I don't know if that makes sense...but...yeah.

Answer 3

All of single men would be exempt if it was only for the married. The real issue is how can the sinful (guys who lust) be saved. And, how can the saved (who can have a problem with lust too) be helped by the Word and by other guys who have found a way of overcoming.

I would guess, over 95% of christain men have some sort of stuggle with lust. Out of the 95% I would guess 80 to 90% feel emotionally weakening guilty almost every day. Yet God does not want the saved to live in guilt. Btw, 99% of the unsaved excuse it as natual and not sinful and avoid the true repentance and forgivness of God so they can continue.

Again: God has provided a way for us so we are not pushing him away and living in guilt. He has provided forgivness and a life of lasting peace (anyone who does not have God cannot have lasting peace) if we go his way.

Answer 4

Jesus is trying to help us see the root of the adultery problem. The problem is not so much if you're married or not, but how you view the opposite sex and how your thoughts give way to your actions. God has placed immeasurable value on all of us and also on marriage, Jesus wants us to know that the marriage commitment is one of the most important commitments we can make. Marriage is the joining of two into one and the sacrificing of yourself for another. If you entertain the idea of lust in your heart then your actions will be more likely to fulfill your lustful thoughts of adultery.

Answer 5

He was just trying to teach the higher laws during this sermon. It's kind of like someone who eventually becomes an alcoholic. If he doesn't take the first drink he will never take the second. The same thing relates to the physical act of committing adultery. Jesus was trying to teach us if we don't lust after women in the adulterous sense then we are very less likely to commit the physical act. Like I said, He was teaching the higher law where as people at that time were led by the Mosaic law.

Answer 6

Scriptures interpret scriptures,

When you are being tempted, you have not yet given into sin nor have you yet sinned.

It is when you give in to the temptation is where you have committed sin. (Gospels, Pauls epistles)

In the eyes of God, he sees what is in our heart...
Remember Israel, led by Moses; the 40 years in the wilderness, these stiffknecked people, although they may of kept the letter of the law, but their hearts were not right... (Exodus, Leviticus)

Same concept...
You do not have to committ the actual act, but yet give into the temptation and lust of and your heart is not right... You can commit or not commit the actual physical act of adultry with a heart that is not right....

It is what comes out a man, not what goes in, that defiles him...

A circumcised heart is better than just keeping a set of rules, etc...

To obey is better than sacrifice.... (1 & 2 Samuel)
You can sacrifice with a heart that is not right with God, but can you truly obey God with a heart that is not right?

Compare the lives of King Saul and King David...

Answer 7

You have to understand that passage in it's cultural context as well as in it's textural context.

On a cultural level Jesus was talking to Jewish men who were all most likely married since marriages were arranged by parents while their children were still young.

In it's textural context Jesus was giving examples of how the Jews of his day had failed to understand that God's law went deeper than outward observances because God looks upon the thoughts and intents of a person's heart and He knows when someone is relishing sin even if outwardly they are not committing it.

So Jesus' listeners would understand that his remarks about adultery referred to married men and the law given by Moses regarding adultery.

Since Jesus was giving examples and not an exhaustive list, we can infer from his teaching that a single person who looks upon another single person whom they have no intention of getting married to with lust is committing the sin of fornication in their heart and not the sin of adultery.

Answer 8

First of all - it is sex outside of marriage. You don't need to be married to commit that sin - it is fornicating and therefore wrong/

If you lust after someone - then yes you have committed it in your heart. If you look at someone and think they're cute -but not thinking about hooking up that way with them - that is just being attracted to someone - not lusting after them.

Whatever - don't get all kooky about it - everyone sins - God has bigger fish to fry than if you get all tingly looking at someone.

Answer 9

If a man looks at a woman with lust in his heart, he has committed adultery, whether he is married or single! In other words, the man has raped her with his eyes!

Answer 10

Let me put it to you another way, see if it makes good sense to you:

If you are single and you look at a single woman and desire her, that's natural, you are after all looking for a mate.

If you are single and look at a married woman with desire, knowing that if she consented you'd have sex with her, then you've just coveted your neighbors wife.

If you are single and look at a married woman's ~insert favorite body part here~ and think "WoooHooo I hope my wife has a set of those too" then you are okay, that's not lust.

If you are married and look at another womans ~insert body part here~ and it makes you want to go home and do your wife, then that's not lust.

If you are married and look at another woman, knowing that in your heart you'd do her if she consented, you've just lusted, whether you do the deed or not. Your heart has already strayed.

Get it? It's all about what is in your heart.