My God and My Neighbor

We live in a visual age. As with all progress, there is a good and a bad side to the amazing potential of the screens we use every day. But we must remember that there is nothing really new (Ecc. 1:9). Behind the world of images is the same old human nature. In this lesson, we will look at what Jesus said about men looking at women in the wrong way. This topic could not be more timely and needed. Pornography is the pandemic of our time. It has been called “every man’s battle.” Some surveys reveal that two-thirds of men claiming to be Christians view these images. Jesus makes no excuses for men. He calls it what it is and tells us to take severe measures to avoid going to hell.


Read about this subject

What is My God and My Neighbor?

My God and My Neighbor is a “Bible talk show” that looks at religious issues, Christian living and world events in light of the Word of God to give hope. This podcast is a ministry of Tennessee Bible College. TBC offers a bachelor's in Bible studies, a master of theology, and a doctorate of theology in apologetics and Christian evidences. TBC also provides Christian books, audio recordings on the Bible, and free Bible courses in English and Spanish. Tune in to My God and My Neighbor to experience the educational content that TBC has been delivering for nearly five decades!

Kerry Duke: Hi, I'm Kerry Duke, host of My God and My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee Bible College, where we see the Bible as not just another book, but the book. Join us in a study of the inspired Word to strengthen your faith and to share what you've learned with others.

If you can open your Bible to Matthew chapter five, then we can read together Matthew chapter five verses 27 through 30. I'll be reading from the New King James Version. Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.”

Did you notice how Jesus begins this section? “You have heard”—that is exactly how He began verse 21 when He talked about murder and hatred. He said, “You have heard,” so we ask the question again: Who was it that taught these Jewish people? In other words, from whom did they hear? Well, they heard it primarily from the scribes and the Pharisees. That's what Jesus tells us in verses 19 and 20. And Jesus warns us that the scribes and the Pharisees taught some of the law, but they didn't teach all of it. In other words, they gave some of what the law of Moses said, but they didn't give the whole picture. And that's the contrast that we find here in verses 27 and 28.

He said, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’” That was right. That was scriptural. It's one of the Ten Commandments that we find in Exodus chapter 20 and also in Deuteronomy chapter 5. The Old Testament says that those Ten Commandments were written with the finger of God upon tablets of stone.

These Jews understood that those Ten Commandments were serious, and the scribes and the Pharisees were right in teaching these people “Don't commit adultery.” And remember that that was not a new law when God gave that law to Moses at Mount Sinai. We know that because in Genesis chapter 20, the Bible records the travels of Abraham and Sarah. On one occasion, the Bible says that Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent and took Sarah because he thought that she was a single woman. He thought that she was available. But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, Indeed, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man's wife.”

Now, there are a lot of other details about that story that you remember perhaps, but I just want to point out that this is a man who is not a Hebrew. We have no indication that he served and worshiped the true and the living God, but he knew that adultery was wrong because the Bible says that he was very afraid and he somewhat apologized about this when God said this to him in this dream.

So here's a man who knew that adultery was wrong, and he didn't have the Ten Commandments because obviously they were written hundreds of years later. So the words “Thou shalt not commit adulter in the Ten Commandments were not a new law. However, the law of Moses showed even more how serious this sin is in God's sight.

For instance, in Leviticus chapter 20 verse 10, the Bible gave the death penalty for adultery. “The man who commits adultery with another man's wife, he who commits adultery with his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.

The New Testament shows even more how serious this sin is in God's sight. In Hebrews chapter 13 verse 4, the Bible says, “Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.” Again, that is Hebrews 13 verse 4. The only reason that Jesus gave for divorce in Matthew 5:32 and in Matthew chapter 19 verse 9 is the cause of fornication which includes the sin of adultery. I point this out because many people today think nothing of this sin. They're so used to it. Their conscience is so dulled. It's so commonplace today among friends at school, people at work, on television, movies, music, magazines, and especially the internet that our culture just makes a joke out of it.

It's no joke. And the Bible says that those who do such things “shall not inherit the Kingdom of God” [Galatians five 19 through 21]. So when the scribes and the Pharisees taught the common, average, everyday Jew “Don't commit adultery,” they were right. The quotation was right, and that teaching was needed even though some of the Jewish leaders were hypocrites about it, in other words, some of those same Jewish leaders who would tell other Jews “Don't commit adultery” were guilty of it themselves.

Do you remember the story of the woman caught in adultery in John chapter 8? I'm looking at that story in my Bible. In John chapter 8, the Bible says in verse 2, “Now early in the morning, He came again into the temple, and all the people came to him. And He sat down and taught them. Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to Him, Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do you say? This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with his finger as though he did not hear.”

So for a time, Jesus ignored them because He knew that they were not sincere. They were just trying to trap him. As usual, the scribes and the Pharisees asked Jesus a question, but they didn't ask Him because they wanted the truth. They were just trying to trick him. They were trying to set him up and here they're trying to put him in a dilemma. They're trying to place him in a situation where no matter what He says, He's going to be in trouble somehow.

That's what they think. They bring this woman who's been caught in adultery, they say, and they ask Him, “What do you think about this?” Because Moses says that such people should be stoned. If Jesus had said, “Yes, go ahead and stone her,” then those scribes and Pharisees would have run to the Roman officials. They would have told them that this man Jesus of Nazareth was teaching something against Roman law. Roman law said that Jews had no right to execute people. The death penalty had been taken away from them. You read about that in John chapter 18 verse 31. On the other hand, if Jesus had said, “No, don't stone her, then these scribes and Pharisees would have told the people who were there, “See, Jesus doesn't believe in the law of Moses.”

So they think that they've got an airtight case against Him. In verse 7, the Bible says, “So when they continued asking him, He raised himself up and said to them, ‘He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.’ And then again, He stooped down and wrote on the ground. Those words of Jesus in John chapter 8 verse 7 about casting the first stone are some of the most well-known words of Jesus.

But they are also some of the most misunderstood, misapplied, and misquoted words of Jesus. They're like Matthew chapter 7 verse 1: “Judge not, that you be not judged.” People quote those words and they misapply them to so many situations. Lord willing, we'll talk about that when we get to Matthew 7 verse 1.

But here in John chapter 8 verse 7, Jesus is talking to the scribes and the Pharisees. And He said, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” Remember the death penalty in the Old Testament? Oftentimes, stoning was the way that they put people to death. Now, let me ask you a question about the person who was to be stoned and the people who were throwing those rocks. And let's suppose, for the sake of example, that the man who is to be put to death is a murderer. It's clear that he's guilty, and so he is to be put to death. So the Jews are about to stone him as a means of capital punishment. The Law of Moses was clear about a man like that. He was to be put to death.

But what about the people who executed him? Were they sinless? Were they perfect? Absolutely not. If people had to be perfect to execute a criminal back in the Old Testament, then nobody could have ever been executed. God couldn't give a law that required that only perfect, sinless people execute a man given the law of Moses and its teaching.

That's not what the Bible taught at all. And it would have been absurd for a murderer in that kind of situation—I'm talking about the circumstance where these Jews have surrounded him and they're about to execute him—it would have been absurd for that man who is a convicted criminal to look at those other Jews and say, “Well, you're not perfect. You've got sin in your life.” I don't believe that that would have gotten him off the hook. Do you? But let's suppose that in that circle of Jews who are about to execute that man for the sin of murder, he sees someone out there who is about to throw one of those stones and he knows that that man is guilty of a capital crime. He knows that that man is a murderer too.

Now, it would have been legitimate for him to have at least said, “That man is guilty of murder too. You ought to execute him too. And he has no right to throw a stone at me because he's guilty of the same thing.” Now that's the kind of circumstance you need to keep in mind when you read John chapter eight, verse seven. “He who is without sin among you” does not mean he who doesn't have a single sin in his life, someone who is absolutely, perfectly sinless. Jesus is not talking about that. When he says, “He who is without sin in John 8 verse 7,” He's talking about the particular sin of adultery, the very sin that these people were saying this woman was guilty of. They were all guilty. And that's indicated in verse 9 when the Bible says, “Then those who heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest, even to the last.”

These scribes and Pharisees who were supposedly such sticklers about the law were guilty of the sin of adultery. I don't know if any of the other people knew about that as far as Jews were concerned, but Jesus knew it. And these scribes and Pharisees certainly knew it, but they thought that they were hiding it from Jesus.

They had no idea that he was going to expose them like this. And it is interesting, if not unusual, that the Bible says that these scribes and Pharisees were convicted by their own conscience. Most of the time, when the scribes and Pharisees confront Jesus, you don't read any indication at all that they have a conscience left. But here in John chapter eight, the Bible says they just walked off. They didn't stand there and argue with him. The Bible says that they went out one by one, beginning with the oldest, even to the last.

Now there's one other thing about this, of course, that shows their utter hypocrisy in this whole matter. The law of Moses said in Leviticus chapter 20, verse 10, that the man and the woman, the adulterer and the adulteress, were both to be put to death. And yet these scribes and Pharisees say that this woman was caught in the very act of adultery, but they didn't bring the man. So they were inconsistent and hypocritical from the start.

So those are just a few verses and a few observations that help us to understand the context and the background of what Jesus is talking about in the Sermon on the Mount. But let's go back to what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5 verse 27. He said, “You have heard,” that is, you have heard, and they were hearing, from the scribes and the Pharisees, “that it was said to those of old, you shall not commit adultery.”

So, they quote the Old Testament. They are teaching of the Old Testament, and there's nothing wrong with that. That was one of the Ten Commandments, and one of those Ten Commandments said that you're not to commit the outward act of adultery. But Jesus says there's more to it. And these scribes and Pharisees, were not talking so much about what he mentions in verse 28.

Jesus said that “Whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Now this verse does not say, it does not mean, that it's wrong to look at a woman. Jesus saw women. In that sense He looked at a woman. Paul said in First Corinthians 5:9 through 11, That in order to avoid any kind of temptation or any contact with people in the world, you'd have to leave this world.

So he's not saying you have to shut your eyes for the rest of your life. He's not even saying that it's wrong to notice that a woman is beautiful. The Bible itself does that. There are several women in the Bible that are called beautiful. Abigail in 1 Samuel 25 was a beautiful woman. Sarah was a beautiful woman. Rebecca was a beautiful woman. Esther in the book of Esther was certainly a beautiful woman. What Jesus did say is that it's wrong for a man to look at a woman for the purpose of lusting, to fantasize, to have impure thoughts, to desire something that he should not have.

A good commentary on this would be 2 Peter 2 verse 14. There the Bible says that some have “eyes full of adultery.” That's exactly what Jesus is talking about in Matthew chapter five, verse 28. He's not talking about simply seeing someone. He's not talking simply about looking at a woman. He's talking about looking at a woman to lust for her. And He says one who does that has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Now there's something about the Sermon on the Mount and the interpretation of it that bears repeating here. And that is when Jesus says, “You have heard…but I say to you,” He is not contrasting the law of Moses with the law of Christ. The Old Testament taught the words that are in verse 27: “You shall not commit adultery.”

That's one of the Ten Commandments. And most people know that. Most Bible students have heard those words. But I'm afraid that a lot of people don't realize that verse 28 is also taught in the Old Testament. It doesn't use the exact words that you read in Matthew chapter five, verse 28, that Jesus spoke, but it does teach the principle.

Even in the 10 commandments in Exodus chapter 20, notice what is said in verse 14: “You shall not commit adultery.” Then in verse 17, “You shall not covet your neighbor's house.” To covet means to desire something that already belongs to somebody else. It means to desire something that you have no right to. So in Exodus chapter 20, verse 17, the Bible says, “You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife.” You're not to desire her. She belongs to somebody else. Now, the reason for the coveting here is different in all these cases, coveting a house, or coveting your neighbor's wife, or coveting his servant, or coveting one of his animals or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.

But it does point to the inward state. It points to the heart. So the idea that the Old Testament just taught that the outward acts of sin were wrong, but it didn't say anything about the heart, is not even true in the Ten Commandments. And I suppose if there's a story in the Old Testament that somewhat graphically illustrates what Jesus is talking about in Matthew chapter 5 verse 28, it would be the story of David and Bathsheba in 2 Samuel chapter 11.

I'm going to begin reading in 2 Samuel chapter 11 verse 2. But before I read those verses, I want us to remember the kind of man David was and also what has taken place here in 2 Samuel chapter 11. It's always good to remember the context and the background of any passage that you're reading in the Bible.

So first of all, who was David? David was a good man. The Bible says that he was a man after God's own heart. He was the king of Israel, which means that he is a very powerful man. And usually whatever he wanted, he got. He had that kind of power. So David is a good man, but he is a man. We have to remember that David was subject to temptation, just like any other man in the Bible.

Now, the second thing to remember here is that this has been a time of war. There is great stress, especially to leaders of nations in times of war. We can't even imagine the kind of pressure that these men were under. So David has been under a lot of stress, but now he has the opportunity to rest for a while.

And the Bible says in 2 Samuel 11, verse 2, “Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed, and walked on the roof of the king's house. And from the roof, he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold.” It's not a strange thing for us to read that David took a nap. He's been through the exhausting stress of this war, and he's taking a break here.

But what sometimes strikes us as a bit odd or strange is the fact that he gets up and he walks on the roof. You have to remember that a roof of Bible houses was not like a roof today. Being on top of a roof today is the last place that many of us want to be. But in Bible times, people went up to the roof to pray, to meditate, or just to relax. It was flat. And so this is a place that David goes to here. He's taking a break.

But the one thing that you learn about the devil in the Bible and in life is that whether you're in the thick of a battle like David or whether you're taking a break in the action like he's taking here, the devil is going to tempt you.

And there's no indication that David saw this coming. There's no indication in the text that he got up hoping that he would see something like this. But it happened. And when it did, he had to deal with it. He had to make a choice. The Bible says in James chapter 1 verse 13, “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempts he any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed” [James 1, 13 and 14]. And that is exactly what happened to David here in Samuel chapter 11. Verses two and three: the Bible says that “he saw from the roof a woman bathing and the woman was very beautiful,”—not just beautiful, but very beautiful—"to behold.”

Now, David made a choice at that point. He could have let it go. He could have turned his head. He could have walked away from that, but he didn't. He saw something that he didn't expect to see. He saw something that he did not plan to see, but that does not remove the fact that he had to deal with what he saw.

And the same is true today. Sometimes men just kind of feel sorry for themselves, or they make excuses for their behavior, and they say, “Well, I can't help it. We live in a world like this. I can't help what I see.” Sometimes when men say that, they're just lying. They could help it if they wanted to. They're looking at things on the television set that they shouldn't be looking at. They're watching movies that are bad. They're looking at pornography on their cell phone. And they're just trying to cover their tracks. They're trying to make excuses. Yes, they could avoid it if they would try.

But on the other hand, there are men who see things that they didn't plan to see. They didn't make a conscious choice to go out and look for those things, but they see them anyway.

In either case, if you see it, you have to deal with it. And the Bible says that you can turn away from it. Listen to 1 Corinthians 10, verse 13. “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man.” Whatever the temptation is, Paul says, you can mark down one thing, and that is, it is common to mankind. You're not the only one that experiences that sin. That's one of the values of reading the Old Testament. You find sins like David committed here. You find temptations even to this good man. But the Bible promises in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 13 that there is no temptation that is so strong that you can't resist it.

No temptation “has overtaken you except such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but will with the temptation also make a way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” Now think about what that verse says and think about it in its original setting.

I'm talking about the church at Corinth. Paul wrote those words to the Christians in the wicked, heathen city of Corinth. You talk about a vile city. You talk about a city that was full of prostitution and all kinds of ungodliness and sexual immorality. Corinth was a very wicked place. And Paul is telling them you don't have to give in to these temptations.

And the same thing was true with David. He could have walked away. He could have turned away from this. So, if the story had ended in 2 Samuel chapter 11, verse 2 by saying that David turned aside, he went back to what he was doing, then imagine how differently the Bible would have read. Imagine how differently the rest of his life would have unfolded.

It would have been completely different. He wouldn't have suffered all that he did, but he suffered because he gave in to his lust. You know, there's one thing about this, and that is that when the feeling of lust is stirred in a man's heart, he doesn't have any sense. He's dumb as an ox. Do you think I'm exaggerating?

If you go back and read Proverbs chapter 7, do you realize that he talks there about a man who is seduced by a woman? And here's what it says. In Proverbs chapter 7, verse 22, immediately he went after her as an ox goes to the slaughter. An ox that is about to be killed at the slaughterhouse doesn't know what's about to hit him. And a man who goes after a woman like this doesn't realize what's going to happen to him. He doesn't realize how he's going to pay for that. He doesn't realize how the people that love him are going to have to pay for this as well. This ruined, this wrecked David's family in a lot of ways. And it could have ended here.

David could have prevented that. So, I'm not trying to be too judgmental about David. I'm not trying to be too harsh with him. I'm simply saying this to each individual who hears my voice today: that sin is an individual choice. We can make excuses about it. We can justify ourselves. We can talk about how weak we are. But the Bible shows that we can walk away. And this is something that is a man's responsibility.

But David made the wrong choice. The Bible says in verse 3, “So David sent and inquired about the woman.” He wanted to know who she was. And someone said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”

In other words, David is told straight out, she's a married woman. David knew that it was wrong to have any kind of thought about having her. And yet the Bible shows in verse 4 that David “sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her, for she was cleansed from her impurity, and she returned to her house.”

David thought that the story was over. He thought that that chapter had ended. He thought that he had enjoyed this moment of pleasure, and that would be all. But the Bible says in Galatians 6 verse 7, “Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.” And David is about to start reaping here in 2 Samuel chapter 11 because the Bible says sometime after that in verse 5, “And the woman conceived. So she sent and told David and said, I am with child.”

Now David is caught. What's he going to do about this? And so the Bible shows that instead of repenting here and changing it and going back and trying to correct what he had done, he makes matters worse. He digs the hole deeper for himself. And he gets himself into a whole lot of trouble. Now, the good thing about that is that David repented in Second Samuel chapter 12. But even though David had repented, and even though God had forgiven him, David still had to pay the price. He still had to suffer the consequences for his sin.

A lot of people don't understand that. They think that just because they're forgiven that there won't be any earthly consequences to their sins. And that's not because God is trying to be too hard on us. There are actually some benefits to that because it keeps us humble. It helps us to understand the gravity and the nature of sin. There are a lot of benefits to that.

So if there's a story in the Bible that really illustrates the law of sowing and reaping, it's this story in the life of David. And if there's an explanation or an illustration of Matthew chapter 5 verse 28 in the Old Testament, this is a great one. So you might want to jot down beside of Matthew chapter 5 verse 28 in your Bible “David, 2 Samuel chapter 11 and 12.”

But there are other verses in the Old Testament on this subject. One of them is in Job chapter 31, verse 1. Here is Job defending himself before his friends that were accusing him. And one of the things that he said about his character in Job chapter 31, verse 1 is this, “I have made a covenant with my eyes. Why then should I look upon a young woman?” Job was a married man. We learn that from Job chapter 2. Here the Bible says that Job tells us that he made a covenant, that is, an agreement with his eyes. That agreement, of course, pertained to his marriage. He was not to look at another woman in the sense that Jesus is talking about—to look at another woman to lust after her.

So he said because I made this covenant, because I made this promise, he says, why then should I look upon a young woman? He's not simply talking about seeing a young woman like we said before. He's talking about looking upon a young woman to lust after her in that sense. So, how did Job avoid the sin of adultery and the sin of lust? Because he made a promise. Because he made a commitment. Because he made his mind up. And men today can and ought to do the same thing.

Another passage is in Proverbs chapter 6. Remember, we're talking about how the Old Testament taught against the sin of lust, not just against the sin of adultery. In Proverbs chapter 6, beginning in verse 25, the Bible plainly says, “Do not lust after her beauty in your heart, nor let her allure you with her eyelids.”

Here the Bible plainly says that lust in the heart is wrong. So, when we look at Matthew chapter 5, verse 28, we should never say that Jesus is talking about something new. But let's go back to Matthew chapter 5 and let's look at the verses after verse 28. There's where Jesus talks about plucking out your eye and cutting off your hand.

Now that cannot be literally cutting off your hand or plucking out your literal eye because when you become a Christian, you surrender your body to God as a living sacrifice [Romans 12, 1 and 2]. Well, Jesus wouldn't be telling you here to destroy that body because you're to use your eyes and your hands and your feet and so forth to serve God.

Plucking out your right eye and cutting off your right hand are symbols. These are illustrations. What's the point? It's simply this. You need your right hand. You need your right eye. And to give them up would be a great sacrifice. This is in the context of what Jesus just said in verse 28 and 29.

Sometimes sin gets such a hold on a man's heart that letting go of that sin is like losing his right hand. It's like losing that right eye. It's a sacrifice and sometimes a painful sacrifice. Sometimes people become addicted to sin. Now that sin may be a drug, it may be alcohol, it may be pornography. But Jesus shows that a man can and he must give it up.

It will be hard. There's no doubt about that. Anytime that a man becomes attached to something, it's hard to give it up. But Jesus said you can do it and you better do it because He said, it's better for you to give up that sin—now that's what the right eye and the right hand here represent—it's better for you to give up that sin than it is for you to go to hell.

So this is, in a physical sense, like gangrene setting up in a man's foot. He can either lose his limb, or he can lose his life. And in terms of sin, he can either give up that sin and repent, or he can lose his soul. And the Apostle Paul made this point in an even stronger way in Romans 6, when he said that when we are baptized into Christ, our old man was crucified with him [Romans 6, verse 6]. And in Galatians 5, verse 24, Paul said, “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” And those are strong commentaries on what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter five.

Thank you for listening to My God and My Neighbor. Stay connected with our podcast on our website and on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever fine podcasts are distributed. Tennessee Bible College, providing Christian education since 1975 in Cookeville, Tennessee, offers undergraduate and graduate programs. Study at your level. Aim higher and get in touch with us today.