Today our paragraph topic is: (Chastity of mind and body).
Christ continues his instructions to us with additional information from the laws of the Ten Commandments. He tells those who know and those who do not know, that they have more than likely heard of the law which says that they shall not commit adultery. He goes one step further and tells us the root of adultery starts with our opening the door to lust and allowing our hearts to be filled with passion. Yet, in the world that we live today, lust and passion are in our daily lives. Everywhere you look, on TV, in the news, in magazines, especially in our music videos everywhere you go lust is there. You can see the effects of it anywhere, just by the look on a man's face when a woman dressed seductively passes by. All the heads turn and the hearts quicken with the thoughts of lust and passion.
I discovered that lust is a spiritual demon that captures both a man and a woman. A woman gets up in the morning and puts on lust with the knowledge that she is going to be attractive, according to the world's social norms. She knows the effect that lust has on the opposite sex, but she desires the attention, the attraction, and the acknowledgement more. I watched once, as a woman, dressed seductively, walked down the street and caused every man to stop, turn their heads watching as she walked, and look with passion in their hearts, every one of them wanted to be with her. And this is why they are called hookers. For a woman, this is a tremendous feeling of power and vanity. For you see, lust reaches out with many tentacles and grabs men's attention and causes them to commit adultery in their hearts, which is against God. Our hearts belong to God and not to Satan. And this is what lust does. It is like an octopus with many tentacles that reaches out and causes men to sin. It is a slave for Satan and it brings forth sin into the hearts of men and women.
Christ tells us in this message that the problem starts with how we look. Looking opens the door. If, when we see lust coming, we turn away, we do not allow the door to be opened to lust. If, we take defensive action against lust, we prevent ourselves from allowing lust to take hold of our hearts. If, we protect our eyes from being open to lust, we do not give ourselves the opportunity to have passion come into our hearts. In our society today, this requires constant vigilance because lust has taken over every form of visual medium, especially in urban areas. People are so accustom to its presence that they are not even aware of its consequences. Yet it tells us how to dress, how to think, how to act, how to feel and how to own our hearts.
Christ wants to come into our hearts, but he cannot. Lust owns it. Christ wants to live with us. He cannot because passion has taken control of it. He tells us: "if thy right eye is an occasion of sin to thee pluck it out !" "if thy right hand is an occasion of sin to thee, cut it off !" He says that, it is better for thee that one of thy members is lost than that thy whole body should go into hell.
Granted these words indicate extreme measures, but Christ is giving us an example of the seriousness of our actions against sin. If we are compelled to do the things that keep us in sin then we must take extreme measures to get out of sin. I do not advocate cutting off of hands or plucking out of eyes, only Christ can do that. Christ here tells us that if given a choice of going to hell or loosing an eye, which would you choose. If given a choice of loosing a hand or having our entire body cast into the eternal fire of hell, which would you choose to do. Christ gives us this example to tell us that pain is a motivator. It would be painful to do these things, therefore we should avoid lust to avoid the pain that these actions require.
Christ continues his instructions to us with additional information from the laws of the Ten Commandments. He tells those who know and those who do not know, that they have more than likely heard of the law which says that they shall not commit adultery. He goes one step further and tells us the root of adultery starts with our opening the door to lust and allowing our hearts to be filled with passion. Yet, in the world that we live today, lust and passion are in our daily lives. Everywhere you look, on TV, in the news, in magazines, especially in our music videos everywhere you go lust is there. You can see the effects of it anywhere, just by the look on a man's face when a woman dressed seductively passes by. All the heads turn and the hearts quicken with the thoughts of lust and passion.
I discovered that lust is a spiritual demon that captures both a man and a woman. A woman gets up in the morning and puts on lust with the knowledge that she is going to be attractive, according to the world's social norms. She knows the effect that lust has on the opposite sex, but she desires the attention, the attraction, and the acknowledgement more. I watched once, as a woman, dressed seductively, walked down the street and caused every man to stop, turn their heads watching as she walked, and look with passion in their hearts, every one of them wanted to be with her. And this is why they are called hookers. For a woman, this is a tremendous feeling of power and vanity. For you see, lust reaches out with many tentacles and grabs men's attention and causes them to commit adultery in their hearts, which is against God. Our hearts belong to God and not to Satan. And this is what lust does. It is like an octopus with many tentacles that reaches out and causes men to sin. It is a slave for Satan and it brings forth sin into the hearts of men and women.
Christ tells us in this message that the problem starts with how we look. Looking opens the door. If, when we see lust coming, we turn away, we do not allow the door to be opened to lust. If, we take defensive action against lust, we prevent ourselves from allowing lust to take hold of our hearts. If, we protect our eyes from being open to lust, we do not give ourselves the opportunity to have passion come into our hearts. In our society today, this requires constant vigilance because lust has taken over every form of visual medium, especially in urban areas. People are so accustom to its presence that they are not even aware of its consequences. Yet it tells us how to dress, how to think, how to act, how to feel and how to own our hearts.
Christ wants to come into our hearts, but he cannot. Lust owns it. Christ wants to live with us. He cannot because passion has taken control of it. He tells us: "if thy right eye is an occasion of sin to thee pluck it out !" "if thy right hand is an occasion of sin to thee, cut it off !" He says that, it is better for thee that one of thy members is lost than that thy whole body should go into hell.
Granted these words indicate extreme measures, but Christ is giving us an example of the seriousness of our actions against sin. If we are compelled to do the things that keep us in sin then we must take extreme measures to get out of sin. I do not advocate cutting off of hands or plucking out of eyes, only Christ can do that. Christ here tells us that if given a choice of going to hell or loosing an eye, which would you choose. If given a choice of loosing a hand or having our entire body cast into the eternal fire of hell, which would you choose to do. Christ gives us this example to tell us that pain is a motivator. It would be painful to do these things, therefore we should avoid lust to avoid the pain that these actions require.
