“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’; but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5:27-28 NASB1995)

Defining Adultery

What is adultery? It isn’t just the act of sexual intercourse with someone to whom you are not married while you are married to someone else. In fact, you don’t have to be married to anyone, and you can still commit adultery. And this isn’t just about men lusting after women to whom they are not married. Any person, male or female, is capable of committing adultery by lusting after another person, whether or not the other person is the opposite sex from them. And this other person doesn’t have to be live and in person.

Probably the most common and active way in which people today, male or female (usually predominantly male), are committing adultery is through the viewing of pornographic or sexually seductive TV shows, movies, cartoons, games, pictures, and videos. And these can be men with men, and women with women, or men with women, and women with men. Or in some cases these may involve children, sadly so. And many children are being taken advantage of sexually, even by one or both parents. Very sad indeed!

And then there is the kind of adultery which involves men or women (more often men) engaging in a sexual act with themselves, which then falls into the category of homosexuality. And this often goes right along with the viewing of sexually charged material. But the one committing adultery may also be stimulated by their own memories or fantasies without any outside stimulation at all. And those who are addicted to this may even prefer themselves over their own spouses, for this is so powerfully addictive!

And then when you think of how God describes spiritual adultery in the Scriptures, it is adultery when we prefer the world over God, or when we prefer and give more attention and affection and caring to other humans than what we give to our own spouses. So not all adultery is sexual in nature, for it has also to do with preferring someone or something else over God and over our spouses. For God is to be in first place, and our spouses are to be in first place over other humans, not the other way around.

“If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.” (Matthew 5:29-30 NASB1995)

Literal or Figuratively?

I tend to take this Scripture passage more figuratively than literally. For, at least in my thinking, a person could get rid of a physical eye or a hand or a leg and still live in spiritual, physical, emotional and/or sexual adultery. And that is because adultery comes from what is stored up in our hearts, not from a physical eye or hand, even though eyes and hands may be used in the process of committing adultery. “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.”

See: [Matthew 15:17-20; Luke 6:45]

So, this is primarily a heart issue. And until what is stored up in the heart is dealt with and removed, by the grace of God, in his power, via the full cooperation of those who are living in adultery, in sinful addiction, the heart will continue to pump out what is stored up in the heart. And this is why many addicts are never successful in gaining victory over their sins, and why they keep repeating the same addictive sins over and over again. And it is because they do not deal with it on a heart level, but on a surface level.

For example, if you are angry with your spouse (or God) over something, but you have not let go of that anger, chances are pretty good when you get angry that you will retaliate by feeding your own flesh or by taking it out on your spouse. Or if you have not forgiven your spouse (or God) about something you believe he or she did to you (whether they did or not), then that unforgiveness will continue to seep into your daily decisions, actions, thinking, and behaviors. So the heart has to be dealt with first.

For “the eye” is used in Scripture to speak of discernment and judgment. And the hands are often spoken of in terms of our deeds and behaviors. And whether or not we give in to sin has much to do with spiritual discernment and judgment and with our actions (deeds, behaviors). So, less literally, this could be speaking of plucking out of our lives all wrong discernments and all wrong behaviors, which usually come in that order. For wrong decisions result in wrong choices and behaviors. So, again, this is a heart issue.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; 2 Corinthians 5:10,15,21; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:1-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

The Heart of Man

Based off Matthew 15:1-20; Mark 7:1-23
An Original Work / April 4, 2012
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Listen to me ev’ryone and
Understand this teaching of Christ:
Why do you break the commands
Of God for the sake of tradition?
When you follow the ways of man,
And don’t obey the words of Christ,
You nullify the words of God,
And you hold to the ways of man.

What comes out of a man’s mouth is
What makes him unclean and dirty.
The things that come out of the mouth
Come from the heart, from within him.
The heart of man is so sinful;
From his nature, out comes evil:
Lying, cursing, greed and malice,
Lust and lewdness, deceit, slander.

Jesus calls us to obey him;
Turn from our sins; follow His ways.
Yet, his people honor him with their lips,
but their hearts not with Him.
Their worship of God is in vain.
Their teachings are rules taught by man.
Jesus calls us; gently leads us
To return and follow His truth.

You Shall Not Commit Adultery
An Original Work / April 26, 2026
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love