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.
–Matthew 5:29
How can we prevent adultery in the head that leads to adultery in the bed? In Matthew 5:29-30, Jesus gave us a radical remedy for the infidelity that destroys marriages: “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.” In Jesus’s day, there were no anesthetics. It was a painful thing to remove an eye or a limb! Was Jesus saying if you cannot control what you look at, then you need to gouge out your eyes? I do not think Jesus was speaking literally, but He was talking about dealing radically with sin in your life. You have to not only deal with the manifestation of evil but reach down and pull out sin by the root. Sometimes that can be inconvenient, and sometimes it can be downright painful.
Are there certain television programs, magazines, or internet sites that incite lust in your heart? Get those things out of your life. Yes, it might be painful, but so are adultery and divorce. What about your job? Is there somebody there who is enticing you into evil? It would be better to change jobs or even careers than experience the heartbreak of immorality. Is there a relationship you have right now that has not turned into a sexual relationship but is on the way to doing so? Get rid of that relationship.
At my former church, there was a man who came to me and said, “There is a woman at work who is going through a painful divorce, and I’ve started counseling her during lunchtime, trying to help her. But those lunchtime counseling sessions have turned into text messages throughout the day, and then after-hours meetings, late nights, and meeting for coffee. It hasn’t evolved into sex yet, but I know where it’s headed. What do you think I should do?”
I said, “Get rid of it. Say goodbye to her.”
“Oh,” he said, “I can’t do that. That would hurt her too much. It would hurt me too much.”
And I quoted Proverbs 6:27: “‘Can a man take fire to his bosom and his clothes not be burned?’ You are playing with fire right now, and you are going to get burned.” That is what Jesus was talking about here. Deal decisively with any hint of immorality in your life.
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Today’s devotion is excerpted from “Straight Talk About Your Sex Life” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2022.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org