Donate

27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. Matthew 5:27-30

[The DEVO] Matthew 5:27-30, Lust and the Public Square

Just as he had done in the previous passage, Jesus uses the “You have heard it said…but I say to you” technique to place himself over previously commissioned spokesmen for God by speaking as God in claiming divinity, intensifying the Law, and subordinating ethics to righteousness. Having demonstrated that violating the prohibition of murder in the Sixth Commandment is not an extraordinary but, rather, ordinary act of life, Jesus moves to the Seventh Commandment and a similar intensification of the prohibition on adultery. Now it is not just adultery that qualifies for punishment in hell, but lustful hearts motivated by attractions and affirmations that undermine covenant fidelity. As with anger, the movement runs horizontal to vertical: from reconciliation with a brother to reconciled worship, and now from fidelity to a spouse to fidelity as the bride of Christ.

Marriage Specifically

Anyone who has attended a wedding has heard some form of what is commonly called the Declaration of Intent. This is the version that I typically use when serving as officiant:

[Name], will you have this [woman/man] to be your [wife/husband], to live together in the covenant of marriage? Do you promise to love [her/him], to comfort [her/him], to honor and to keep [her/him], in sickness and in health; and, forsaking all others, to be faithful to [her/him] as long as you both shall live?

But how many of us have ever heard the bride or the groom respond, “I would but I am planning on having an affair at some point?” Yet, that is exactly where Jesus is taking the conversation. Rather than leave his audience of followers, seekers, and skeptics to once again look into the face of the Law and say, “I can do that,” Jesus instead forces them to ask, “Who can do that?” When Jesus says that the lusting eye and wandering hand have the same consequence in God’s economy, it forces us to ask what causes not just adultery, but lust. It seems that there are two primary motivations.

First, there is a lust motivated by attraction. The meme above has been retooled countless times because it is so spot on in what it conveys. The only thing wrong with the meme, right off the bat, is that it falsely conveys that men are the only ones who lust over new, or different, or shiny things. Women will tell you that is just not true.

It’s important to note that Jesus is not saying that we should not notice the new, different, or shiny thing. God created us to perceive, desire, and enjoy beauty. The issue is not in the noticing but in the lusting after. This is what the meme depicts well: despite holding the hand of their beloved, they continue to gaze upon someone else after they should be well out of their field of vision. This is the point James is making when he writes,

But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. James 1:14–15

The press loves a good affair story because the public loves a good affair story. We want the salacious details and the algorithms know it. When the member of one party has an affair the members of the other are quick to pounce and levy all charges of immorality that render them unfit for public service. Far more rare is the occurrence of members of their own party calling for their removal.

What is lost in this is the spouse who was objectified through devaluation of their attractiveness, the other who was objectified through a misvaluation of their attractiveness, and the one who placed objectified attractiveness over covenant faithfulness.

Second, there is a lust motivated by affirmation. This is the allure of craving someone other than your spouse’s affirmation and attention. While physical attraction is certainly powerful, affirmation is, perhaps, even more so. Genesis 2:18 makes clear that the LORD God created us to need complement, “Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.'” According to Genesis, our spouse exists to complement, not compliment, us spiritually, emotionally, relationally, and even vocationally. Yet, their role as complement provides a form of affirmation that we need. As Christians, we should consider it part of our calling to bless others in these four areas. But when we are married, longing for someone else’s affirmation over our spouse is a form of lust which can also lead to covenant unfaithfulness.

Importantly, Jesus is clarifying that just keeping yourself from pushing the motivation of attraction or affirmation to the point of adultery is not the purpose of the Seventh Commandment; it is entertaining and enjoying the attraction and affirmation that is the place where the transgression first occurs. Imagine if the press ran stories about entertaining inappropriate attractions and affirmations as often as they happened.

Faithfulness Generally

Early in the ministry of Jesus, he is baptized by John the Baptist. After Jesus leaves that baptism and turns water into wine at a wedding, the disciples of John the Baptist ask John if he is concerned about the growing fame of Jesus, to which he replies using wedding language,

28 You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ 29 The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease. John 3:28–30

At the end of the New Testament we read of a wedding ceremony which is the culmination of all things in this passage from John in Revelation,

Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.” Rev. 19:7–9

This wedding picture is not new, but goes back to the Old Testament, when the prophet Isaiah foretells the restoration of God’s people after their upcoming exile (or separation) for routinely violating their promise in Exodus 24 to obey all that the LORD commanded.

4 You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate,
but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married;
for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married.
5 For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you,
and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. Isa. 62:4–5

Earthly marriage, then, is a picture of our engagement as Christ’s bride. The Sermon on the Mount, therefore, is given to followers, seekers, and skeptics who are also his future bride. If this is a passage about adultery in marriage, and if our bridegroom is Christ, we must now ask what would cause us not just to commit adultery as his bride, but to lust after anyone or anything else. What would cause Jesus to say in Matthew 12,

38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” 39 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Matt. 12:38–40

The answer is the same as it was above.

First, there is a lust motivated by the desire of possessing the attractive. Politicians work hard to make themselves attractive to the electorate. In fact, in campaigning it is typically the most attractive candidate who wins. Feeding into this is the politicians’ awareness that the electorate is fickle and has wandering eyes and hands, always looking for the new, the different, or the shiny.

Second, there is a lust motivated by the desire of receiving affirmation. As the electorate, we want candidates who make us feel affirmed in our beliefs, even if they are not good for us. As servants and leaders in the public square we are given to seeking affirmation from others and the public rather than from our Father, who says “you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married.” Because he is the God of steadfast love and faithfulness, that never changes.

Righteousness Sacrificially

Whenever Scripture doubles down on something, it’s because we are supposed to take notice. That is true of the statement Jesus makes in the couplet at the end of the passage that appears to encourage self-dismemberment.

29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

The eye and the hand are offered as instruments, not as the problem. The eye is where the heart’s desire looks, the hand is where it acts, and neither moves without the heart’s motivation. The remedy to the sin problem is offered in the form of a word-for-word repetition that is, on its face, very painful to execute. But the verses actually help us make sense of what Jesus is saying. Jesus is making the point that your body belongs whole, not dismembered. Jesus does not intend that every time he turns around people will be lopping off body parts to ensure they are allowed into heaven. Rather, he is promoting wholeness through the removal of that which does not belong — lust.

The problem is not just that we are unwilling to part with the part that causes us to sin. We are unwilling to redirect the affections of our hearts to love the LORD our God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and love our neighbor as ourselves. We would rather embrace lust. We are not willing to stop indulging our lust through objectifying people, possessions, or positions as more attractive than Jesus, let alone our spouse. Further, we are not willing to stop indulging our lust for affirmation that comes nowhere close to the affirmation we are given by the God of steadfast love and faithfulness who,

shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. Rom. 5:8–11

This passage makes two important points. The first is that God loves us. The second is that the lustful adulterous hearts of the bride, motivated by improper attractions and affirmations, are only made clean by the sacrifice of the Bridegroom who sacrificed not just his eye, or his hand, but his life to redeem us. What he asks for, in fact requires, is our whole hearts set upon him. 

 

Application Questions

Where in your work have you found yourself drawn to a position, a coalition, or an opportunity because it was new, different, or shiny rather than because it was good?

Whose attractiveness have you devalued in order to justify your interest in something else, a colleague, an institution, a party, a cause you once committed to?

Whose affirmation are you currently working hardest to secure, and what would change in your work if you stopped needing it?

 

Faithful Prayer

  • Executive Branch: Servants and leaders at the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) who work to conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, plants, and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people.
  • Think Tank, Lobby Group, NGO: Servants and Leaders at the National Wildlife Federation, America’s largest and most trusted conservation organization, works across the country to unite Americans from all walks of life in giving wildlife a voice. We’ve been on the front lines for wildlife since 1936, fighting for the conservation values that are woven into the fabric of our nation’s collective heritage.
  • Weekly Delegation: The servants and leaders of the congressional delegation of the state of Massachusetts.
  • News Events: For fruitful results for those in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who are researching whether radio telemetry, technology more commonly used to track birds and mammals, can work on animals as small as a bumble bee. This innovative approach can reveal movements that are difficult to capture through traditional surveys. That, in turn, helps fill information gaps faster and make more timely, targeted conservation decisions for pollinators, including the endangered rusty patched bumble bee.
  • Personal Requests:  For someone working their final weeks as a government employee after 15 years of serving and leading. For multiple pregnancies and for those hoping to conceive. For a senior staffer dealing with a very difficult parenting situation. For a member of Congress who is taking heat for crossing party lines to work for something they believe will bring flourishing to their district. 

 

The Page, Pod, Stack

 

What’s Happening

This Week:
    • Wednesday, Sep 30,  2:00 – 6:15 pm ET, AEI presents a hybrid event, Radical Grace: A Tribute to the Life and Work of Bob Woodson. For over 40 years, Robert “Bob” L. Woodson Sr. pioneered a movement to empower people to become agents of their own uplift. A civil rights leader and former AEI senior fellow, Mr. Woodson held a stalwart hope for the promise of America and the potential for individuals to transform their communities. His efforts renewed a respect for the institutions that lead to human triumph. Please join the American Enterprise Institute for an afternoon honoring his legacy. 
    • Wednesday, Sep 30, 12:00 – 1:00 pm ET, Rand presents an online event, The State of Psychedelics in America. Interest in psychedelics is growing across the country—from lawmakers and researchers to veterans, patients, and other members of the public. As policies begin to shift, key questions remain about how these substances are used, how Americans view them, and what psychedelics policy might look like. In this Policy Lab, RAND’s Beau Kilmer breaks down the latest evidence from his research, including a new report on veterans’ psychedelic use.
    • Wednesday, Sep 30, 3:00  – 4:15 pm ET, The Brookings institute has a hybrid event,  The future of American diversity: A new look at how shifting demographics are shaping the nation.
    • Saturday, Oct 3, is OktoberFest at the Wharf. Put on your dirndl or lederhosen, grab your Dachshund and join great folks for a free Oktoberfest at The Wharf festivities on Saturday, October 3, 2026
Next Week: 

FacebookLinkedInXEmail

Faithful Presence exists to provide whole-life discipleship in the whole of life for the whole of the public square. Join us as we seek renewal in politics and the public square by becoming a Supporting Partner.

 

Find Us On: LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Apple & Spotify