“Make the Connection”

Matthew 5: 28b-29a: “Everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart. And if your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out.” In these days when pornography is often classified as art, we need to get back to these words of Jesus, which are hardly ambiguous. When He talks of looking on a woman (or man) He can mean either the hard copy or a soft copy. And when He immediately follows with a recommendation to pluck out an eye which refuses to stop wandering, the inference is clear. Any form of looking on another person with lust is adultery. (And when He continues the thread with possible offenses from one’s right hand, again the inference is clear.)