“But I Say unto You…”, A Second Look at Lusting after a Woman

Ye have heard that it has been said, Thou shalt not commit adultery. 28But I say unto you, that every one who looks upon a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Matthew 5:27–28, Darby Translation

The word “lust” to most readers of that verse probably carries with it the idea of “strong sexual desire.” And as a noun, “lust” certainly does mean that, among other things. However, as a verb, which is how it is used in the above verse, the word “lust” means something much simpler: to have a strong desire or a craving for something. Pleasure (sexual or otherwise) is merely the implied ends of lusting, not the means thereof. (Why else would someone crave something if not for pleasure of one sort or another?)

And so it is in the Greek. “To lust after” is a translation of the word ἐπιθυμέω, which carries a very simple meaning according to Strong’s: “to set the heart upon, i.e., long for (rightfully or otherwise).”

The word — in Greek and English — is not inherently sexual, so we must not simply assume it. Stick with “desire to have” as a working definition for the time being.

So thus far, substituting the meaning for the word, the above passage looks like this, modified words emphasized:

Ye have heard that it has been said, Thou shalt not commit adultery. 28But I say unto you, that every one who looks upon a woman to desire to have her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Matthew 5:27–28, Darby Translation

Matthew 5:28 is often used to declare that any “sexual thoughts” about a woman is equivalent to committing adultery, and so it is a sin. But such is not the case, for “sexual thoughts” aren’t a part of this verse. Stopping with our meaning-for-word interpretation we just quoted, we are left with a problem: If it is adultery to desire a woman, how on Earth is anyone ever supposed to get married? surely “adultery in the heart” isn’t the birth of marriage‽

To answer that question, we must look at the context of this desiring: “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” the seventh commandment. What is adultery?

The word “adultery” both times it is used in the quoted passage comes from the Greek word μοιχάω, which simply means “to commit adultery.” For further clarification, we must look at the word from which μοιχάω is derived: μοιχός, which “denotes one ‘who has unlawful intercourse with the spouse of another.'”

So let’s do another meaning-for-word swap, and again all modified words are emphasized:

Ye have heard that it has been said, Thou shalt not commit having unlawful intercourse with the spouse of another. 28But I say unto you, that every one who looks upon a woman to desire to have her has already committed having unlawful intercourse with the spouse of another with her in his heart. Matthew 5:27–28, Darby Translation

What Jesus does is reveal the link between the seventh commandment and the tenth (“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s” Exodus 20:17).

In other words, if you covet your neighbor’s wife, then you have already committed adultery with her. We all know that much.

But what doesn’t this verse say?

This verse does not teach that if you “lust” after an unmarried woman that you commit adultery with her. It could perhaps be said that it is okay to desire (or “lust after,” if you prefer) an unmarried woman, for if you do not desire her, how will you marry her?

Paul would seem to agree with that in 1 Corinthians 7 when he teaches that rather than burning with passion caused by abstinence, you should marry.

We’re often taught that lust is bad. And certainly, lusting (coveting) after anything which is already spoken for is bad. But it seems to me that an overextending interpretation of our primary passage in Matthew has led to a lot of prudishness within the churches when it comes to sexuality. We’re taught that it’s bad and can only lead to bad things. All the while the Song of Solomon, an explicit love song of two star-crossed lovers who (and correct me if I’m wrong) were not even married yet, sits right in the middle of the Scriptures taunting everything we think we know about holiness and sex.

6 thoughts on ““But I Say unto You…”, A Second Look at Lusting after a Woman”

  1. Ah, the copy of Darby I read from was electronic plain text — no actual formatting. And I didn’t catch the WordPress mis-translation of the quotation marks. Thanks. Should be all fixed up now.

  2. Can you correct the reversed quotation marks in (”You ?
    (And I believe the original Darby used italics, not asterisks.)

  3. My point, though, was that Jesus was talking in a general way. He wasn’t saying, “Don’t look at and long for women.” Rather, He tied the tenth commandment to the seventh and said, “Don’t long for married women.” In other words, do not covet your neighbor’s wife, or you have already committed adultery with her.

    That was David’s mistake; if Bathsheba were single, his lust/desire/what-have-you would have gained him a wife without all the muss and fuss of the sins of murder, adultery, and so on.

  4. Rick.. Good explanation on this. You know a Christian man has to come to terms with “lusting after” or “looking at other women”. Some have termed it “just looking”. To me, the eyes, are one of the entrances to your mind. When we look at the story of David we see that that Bible said that he gazed upon Bathsheba. However, the Bible shows that he continued to look at her and then he “had” to have her. You see that is the correlation! Looking leads to action in a lot of cases. It is a build up! So to speak. In other words, a Christian man has to employ disciplines in his life or else he could lead like David as to “I have to have that woman”.

  5. This is definitely one of the most abused scriptures in christiandom today. The way most teach it, you can commit adultery with your wife just by looking at her…preposterous.

    Thanks for breaking it down.

    Keep going…the Greek word “gune” according to my Strong does mean woman, “spec: a married woman” The context of adultery locks in that understanding.

    God Bless,

    Robert

  6. Jesus is speaking about adultery. Adultery can only be committed with an married person in the picture. If an unmarried man are simply interested or desires an married women, he has committed adultery. The same goes for the married women, if she’s simply just interested or desires the unmarried man, she has committed adultery. Just the intentional thought of it, is sinful. Jesus is simply teaching that you don’t have to commit the sexual act to commit the sin of adultery. It is committed by just showing interest or by just wanting. But would it be fornication for a unmarried women to desire an unmarried man? Does Jesus also imply that. Yes, The Lord does. But keep in mind, these sins differ from one another and remember that Jesus is simply speaking about the intent of heart. If the unmarried look at one another with the intent of sexual purposes, it may be wrong. If you can commit adultery without the act of an sexual intercourse, you are able to commit fornication without the act of an sexual intercourse. If you can commit murder without physically murdering someone you can be a thief without literally stealing something. Jesus is touching on the intentions of our hearts. For if our righteousness doesn’t surpass those of the pharisees and teachers of the law, we’ll never enter the kingdom of heaven.

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