Divine Imperatives September 4 Devotional
by David Joynt on September 04, 2023
Stress Test Devotional May 18
May 18, 2024
MATTHEW 5:28 | 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
In Greek mythology, Ares, the god of war, is the lover of Aphrodite, goddess of desire. Just as Jesus condemns anger, He also condemns lust. Both emotions seek power over another, one by hatred, the other by attraction and seduction. Both emotions use someone else, depersonalizing them. Christian ethics in the sexual area was a shock to the Greco-Roman world. Rome capitulated to the sexual amoralism of Greece, just as western societies have seemingly capitulated to Hollywood’s eroticism, which separates sexual pleasure from promises and covenant and encourages voyeurism and thrill seeking.
Adultery begins with fantasy. The eye and ear begin to focus on images and people in certain ways. Lust becomes a habit and an ingrained distortion—we see others sexually.
Examine the way you see others today.
Gracious God,
Remind me that purity is not prudery. Let me see others as people, not as objects of my internal desires.
Amen.
