Self-Mutilating Your Way Out of Lust

(How’s that for a click-baity title?!)

Image via Pixabay

If you’re familiar with Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount, you perhaps already get the gist of where this is going.

See Jesus’ words from the Gospel of Matthew:

²⁷ “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ ²⁸ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. ²⁹ If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. ³⁰ And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.” (Mt 5.27-30)

As always, Jesus’ words challenge, to say the least.

“You shall not commit adultery.” That part is pretty straight-forward and uncontroversial. In most cultures and worldviews, marriage vows are serious and breaking them is wrong.

However, as He often does, Jesus escalates things to a whole other level.

“Don’t think that just because you’ve never literally crossed the line into an affair, you are free and clear,” Jesus seems to be saying.

“If you’ve lusted, you’ve sinned too.”

And in that simple shift, any self-righteousness that we might have towards another’s sexual sin, whatever it may be, gets shattered.

Because I don’t know if there is a person on earth who hasn’t lusted.

And while the damage done there is not as bad as an actual physical act, Jesus definitely levels the playing field here to show us all that we can’t  look down on anyone else’s sexual sin.

We have likely all committed something like this.

Then, after He has established that lust is a real problem, He offers a shocking solution:

If your eye is leading you into lust, gouge it out.

If your hand is the problem, cut it off.

It’s better to sacrifice body parts now than to put your eternity at risk.

Very interesting that the solution isn’t to get mad at the one you are lusting after, demanding that they act differently or dress differently or change things on their end.

Jesus does not say to blame and shame the person who is the object of your desire.

Jesus instead calls upon the luster to radically self-mutilate themselves in order to avoid the temptation.

It’s ultimately about what’s going in you.

It’s on you to change.

And of course, to be very clear, Jesus is not literally calling us to self-harm.

He is engaging in the common rabbinical practice of hyperbole – deliberately exaggerating something in an extreme way in order to emphasize it and make a point.

We do not cause harm to our literal bodies, which are created by God and are to be honoured.

We do radically sacrifice anything in our lives that cause us to stumble into sin.

I know for some in this area of lust, this has meant no television, no smart phones, no internet.

It has meant pulling away from friendships that were moving into unhealthy attraction or confessing unpleasant things to a spouse that needed to come out.

It has meant a commitment to accountability and crystal-clear boundaries.

It has meant deliberate and intentional devotion to purity.

And I don’t think it violates the spirit of this passage to suggest that this is good advice for many sins beyond just lust, although it should cause all of us to take a good look at where lust may lurk in our hearts, and what steps might need to be taken to avoid it.

In any area of sin, we can take on this same attitude: To pursue righteousness, what do I need to remove that is getting in the way?

Sacrifice is never easy, but it is sometimes necessary. And it gets easier when we can see the value of the greater good.

Sacrificing on its own is exhausting.

Sacrificing for a higher purpose is easier.

So we sacrifice for the sake of holiness. Sacrifice for the sake of what is good. Sacrifice to stay on the right path. Sacrifice to protect ourselves and others. Sacrifice to preserve our most important relationships. Sacrifice to please the Lord.

As we do so, we trust that His way is higher, and better (Isa 55.9).

And we trust that He is working for our good (Rom 8.28).

And we trust that this will work out for good, even if it costs us something to get there.

********

If you’re enjoying what you read, you can follow Third Way Christians on Facebook or Instagram, or sign up to get new columns emailed to you here! As well, you can track along with Chris’ church teaching at Meadow Brook Church’s YouTube page!