.
● 1John 3:15 . . Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer
That isn't saying hatred for one's brother is an act of murder. It's saying
that one's hatred for a brother reveals that one has a murderer's heart.
For example: lions and tigers are carnivores. Even if they should never eat
meat, they would still be carnivores because it isn't the animals' diet that
makes them carnivores; they're carnivores because they have the nature
of a carnivore.
● Matt 5:27-28 . .You have heard that it was said you shall not commit
adultery; but I say to you, that everyone who looks on a woman to lust for
her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.
Before we can even begin to apply what Christ said about adultery; we first
have to categorize the "woman" about whom he spoke. Well; she's obviously
somebody's wife because adultery is defined as voluntary carnal activity
between a married man and someone other than his wife, or between a
married woman and someone other than her husband. In other words; in
order for an incident to qualify as adultery, at least one of the participants
has to be married.
The koiné Greek word for "lust" is epithumeo (ep-ee-thoo-meh'-o) which
means: to set the heart upon.
Setting one's heart upon something is a whole lot different than merely
liking something and wanting it. The one whose heart is set upon something
is in the process of finding a way to get it; and as such comes under the
ruling of covetousness; which reads:
● Ex 20:17 . .Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet
thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor
his burro, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's.
Coveting, per se, isn't a sin. Paul encouraged the Corinthian Christians to
"covet earnestly" the best spiritual gifts (1Cor 12:31) and to covet prophesy
(1Cor 14:39). To "covet earnestly" means you go after something with the
full intention of possessing it.
Ex 20:17 doesn't condemn erotic fantasies nor a healthy male libido, no, it
condemns scheming to take away something of your neighbor's instead of
getting your own. (cf. 1Kgs 21:1-20)
So then, are Ex 20:17 and Matt 5:27-28 saying that a man can't look across
the street at his neighbor's Harley and drool over it, turning green with
envy? Or that a man can't gape at his neighbor's buxom wife, undressing
her with his eyes, and having erotic fantasies about her? No, the kind of lust
we're talking about here doesn't imply that at all. It implies a man scheming
to obtain the neighbor's Harley, and his buxom wife, instead of getting your
own.
As an illustration: in the movie The Bridges Of Madison County, there's a
precise moment when a married Francesca Johnson makes a definite
decision to initiate an affair with free-lance photographer Robert Kincaid.
Francesca was okay with Robert up till the moment of her decision; but from
that moment on, Mrs. Johnson was an adulteress before she and Robert
even slept together because it was in her heart to make it happen.
Supposing a religious man sincerely believes it really and truly is adultery to
entertain thoughts about women-- any woman, whether somebody's wife or
single? Well; too bad because if that's the way he feels, then whenever he
entertains those thoughts, he's an adulterer.
● Rom 14:14 . . To him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is
unclean.
● Rom 14:23 . . If you do anything you believe is not right, you are sinning.
That is indeed tragic because there are perfectly normal men out and about
stacking up piles of unnecessary sins against themselves due to their religion
instilling within them a guilt complex related to their God-given attraction to
women.
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