Monday, July 5

For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
- Matthew 5:20
Not too long ago, after a family dinner, I asked one of my children to empty the dishwasher. I came back into the kitchen several minutes later to find many clean dishes from the dishwasher stacked on the counter, but not put away. I asked my child why they didn’t do what I had asked them. To my surprise, the response I received was, “But dad, I did. You asked me to empty the dishwasher, and it is empty.” I was completely caught off guard somewhere between frustration and amusement. My child had obeyed the literal directions that I had given them, but they had missed the intent of their father’s instruction.

In a sense, this is how the Pharisees of Jesus’ day approached the Old Testament law. They were so concerned with the letter of the law that they often completely missed the spirit of the law. This is a very real spiritual danger for all of us!

We must guard against becoming what Jesus warns against in Matthew 15:8, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”

Nowhere is this more important than in the issue that Jesus deals with next, the issue of sexual purity.

You have heard that it was said, “Do 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

The Pharisees had reduced what it meant to keep the Old Testament law on this issue to simply avoiding the physical act of adultery (i.e. do not have sex with someone who was not your spouse). Apparently they assumed that if the adultery was only happening in their imaginations God either wouldn’t know or wouldn’t care about it. Jesus says, in effect, of course that is a law of God, but that is only the beginning of what God desires for His people when it comes to the issue of sexual desire and temptation.

In November 1976, former President Jimmy Carter made these remarks during an interview with Playboy Magazine, “The Bible says, ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery.’ Christ said, I tell you that anyone who looks on a woman with lust has in his heart already committed adultery. I've looked on a lot of women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times.... This is something that God recognizes, that I will do and have done, and God forgives me for it.”

But what happened after that interview? Yes, you guessed it.

Playboy had record sales that month. President Carter became a public laughing stock. His political enemies had a field day with his comments and the TV show Saturday Night Live had their next four months of material for political jokes.

The reality is that our culture laughs at the notion of looking at another person lustfully as being wrong. Yet, at the same time, our culture is being destroyed by the devastating effects of lust and adultery.

We have said that the Sermon on the Mount is all about life in the Kingdom and Jesus’ Kingdom message is radically counter-cultural. I am convinced that one of the most counter-cultural applications of this Kingdom lifestyle is with this very issue.

Prayer:

God grant us the grace and strength to seek your kingdom and your righteousness. Make us men and women of purity in mind, in body and in heart – Amen.

Jeff Frazier