Lust
LUST
7 Verses on Lust
1. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. (1 John 2:16)
2. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. (Colossians 3:5)
3. It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God (1 Thessalonians 4:3-5)
4. For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. (1 Peter 4:3)
5. You will have these tassels to look at and so you will remember all the commands of the LORD, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by going after the lusts of your own hearts and eyes. (Numbers 15:39)
6. I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl. (Job 31:1)
7. But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matthew 5:28)
7 Quotes on Lust
1. “Perhaps as good a classification as any of the main types is that of the three lusts distinguished by traditional Christianity - the lust of knowledge, the lust of sensation, and the lust of power” (Irving Babbitt)
2. “Society drives people crazy with lust and calls it advertising” (John Lahr)
3. “Love comforteth like sunshine after rain, But lust's effect is tempest after sun; Love's gentle spring doth always fresh remain, Lust's winter comes ere summer half be done; Love surfeit's not, Lust like a glutton dies, Love is all truth, Lust full of lies” (William Shakespeare)
4. I will far rather see the race of man extinct than that we should become less than beasts by making the noblest of God's creation, woman, the object of our lust. (Gandhi)
5. “Lust is an ancient malady, but one could argue that technology enables this sin to be worse for us… the Web is peculiarly well-suited for the exercise of, and encouragement of, lust, which tends to be one of the most secretive of the seven” (Will Willimon)
6. In modern life, the only damaging thing about lust is suppressing it. ‘Deny thyself’ is not a watchword of our age. Who wants to be labeled a prude?… In an earlier day, masturbation was a sin. Now, it’s a cure. (Will Willimon)
7. “As a pastor, give me a lustful, seeking, reaching, desirous person in my congregation rather than a detached, cool, controlled, repressed apathetic person. It’s easier to contain and direct a fire than it is to raise the dead.” (Will Willimon)
..................
Jesus said that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart... and maybe every man present (and every future man) felt a good bit uneasy. If adulterers have no part in the kingdom and lustful thoughts qualify as adultery, won't the kingdom be lacking the important ingredient of citizenry?
However we answer that question, we must admit the problem of lust (apparently real even before the invention of the internet) has only gotten worse. As I type this I've just been looking at a long list of terrible statistics about the American addiction to pornography. I won't share the stats because we all know they're bad. Will Willimon states that "lust is an ancient malady, but one could argue that technology enables this sin to be worse for us... the Web is peculiarly well-suited for the exercise of, and encouragement of, lust, which tends to be one of the most secretive of the seven."
I'm not sure, though, that the problem is much worse now than it used to be (after all, the NT addresses the problem of lust and sexual immorality often, seemingly because it was indeed a problem). But certainly the secret is out. Our culture wants us to lust (for sex and for sales) and we find it difficult not to oblige.
I'll make an embarrassing admission. Though I've personally never struggled with pornography, I did, into my early 20's, keep a computer file full of pictures of pretty actresses. It was pretty innocent by most standards (they were all fully clothed, these weren't even swimsuit type pics). But what did God think of that file on my laptop? Why did I have it? In the end, I realized that it was keeping my focus on surface level beauty and could have become, were it not for repentance, a first step toward pornography.
If we are going to learn not to lust, we will have to identify and defeat dangers in their introductory forms. Sexually immoral people don't wake up after 20 years of faithfulness to their spouse and decide to commit adultery. More often, adultery comes after a series of decisions that tolerate a little 'yes' to lust and a little 'no' to love.
7 Verses on Lust
1. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. (1 John 2:16)
2. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. (Colossians 3:5)
3. It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God (1 Thessalonians 4:3-5)
4. For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. (1 Peter 4:3)
5. You will have these tassels to look at and so you will remember all the commands of the LORD, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by going after the lusts of your own hearts and eyes. (Numbers 15:39)
6. I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl. (Job 31:1)
7. But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matthew 5:28)
7 Quotes on Lust
1. “Perhaps as good a classification as any of the main types is that of the three lusts distinguished by traditional Christianity - the lust of knowledge, the lust of sensation, and the lust of power” (Irving Babbitt)
2. “Society drives people crazy with lust and calls it advertising” (John Lahr)
3. “Love comforteth like sunshine after rain, But lust's effect is tempest after sun; Love's gentle spring doth always fresh remain, Lust's winter comes ere summer half be done; Love surfeit's not, Lust like a glutton dies, Love is all truth, Lust full of lies” (William Shakespeare)
4. I will far rather see the race of man extinct than that we should become less than beasts by making the noblest of God's creation, woman, the object of our lust. (Gandhi)
5. “Lust is an ancient malady, but one could argue that technology enables this sin to be worse for us… the Web is peculiarly well-suited for the exercise of, and encouragement of, lust, which tends to be one of the most secretive of the seven” (Will Willimon)
6. In modern life, the only damaging thing about lust is suppressing it. ‘Deny thyself’ is not a watchword of our age. Who wants to be labeled a prude?… In an earlier day, masturbation was a sin. Now, it’s a cure. (Will Willimon)
7. “As a pastor, give me a lustful, seeking, reaching, desirous person in my congregation rather than a detached, cool, controlled, repressed apathetic person. It’s easier to contain and direct a fire than it is to raise the dead.” (Will Willimon)
..................
Jesus said that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart... and maybe every man present (and every future man) felt a good bit uneasy. If adulterers have no part in the kingdom and lustful thoughts qualify as adultery, won't the kingdom be lacking the important ingredient of citizenry?
However we answer that question, we must admit the problem of lust (apparently real even before the invention of the internet) has only gotten worse. As I type this I've just been looking at a long list of terrible statistics about the American addiction to pornography. I won't share the stats because we all know they're bad. Will Willimon states that "lust is an ancient malady, but one could argue that technology enables this sin to be worse for us... the Web is peculiarly well-suited for the exercise of, and encouragement of, lust, which tends to be one of the most secretive of the seven."
I'm not sure, though, that the problem is much worse now than it used to be (after all, the NT addresses the problem of lust and sexual immorality often, seemingly because it was indeed a problem). But certainly the secret is out. Our culture wants us to lust (for sex and for sales) and we find it difficult not to oblige.
I'll make an embarrassing admission. Though I've personally never struggled with pornography, I did, into my early 20's, keep a computer file full of pictures of pretty actresses. It was pretty innocent by most standards (they were all fully clothed, these weren't even swimsuit type pics). But what did God think of that file on my laptop? Why did I have it? In the end, I realized that it was keeping my focus on surface level beauty and could have become, were it not for repentance, a first step toward pornography.
If we are going to learn not to lust, we will have to identify and defeat dangers in their introductory forms. Sexually immoral people don't wake up after 20 years of faithfulness to their spouse and decide to commit adultery. More often, adultery comes after a series of decisions that tolerate a little 'yes' to lust and a little 'no' to love.
posted by matthew at 9:51 AM
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