Matthew 5:27-28 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

This whole section is discarded by humanists as “impractical,” or “unrealistic.” That’s because they love their sins, and have no intention of discarding them! Jesus caps it all off with “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect,” in verse 48, and we just throw our hands up and say, “No way!” I think that part of Jesus’ purpose in giving all of these teachings was to show that indeed, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) We get comfortable with how we are, and fail to recognize our own need for repentance and growth. It is only when we acknowledge God’s standards that we understand how precious, indeed vital, God’s grace and mercy are, to us individually as well as to society as a whole. In the case of adultery, as this passage deals with, there is a whole industry dedicated to getting people to violate what Jesus said! And sadly, there are many who, at least for a while, are willing participants. When society is so debased, it is easy to feel “pure” and “holy” in comparison, so Jesus had to lay down God’s absolute standards. When Jesus tells us things like “Love your enemies,” (Matthew 5:43-44) our human minds recoil. However, God makes it possible. I’ll never forget the time I was crossing a large park in Fukuoka as a child with my mother. The park has a huge statue of Nichiren, the founder of one of the major sects of Japanese Buddhism. One of their offshoots is the Buddhist equivalent of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and a young man, probably from that offshoot, came up and accosted us, saying rather belligerently to my mother, “You’re a missionary, aren’t you?” She confessed to being guilty as charged, so he started in with “You missionaries demand things of us that are impossible, but we only ask of people what is possible. You tell us to love our enemies, but that’s impossible.” My mother countered with the story of a couple whose son had been shot down over Japan in WWII and was in a POW camp. Just days before the end of the war, one of the guards had shot and killed him. After this, hearing what had happened from other Americans who had been prisoners, the parents traveled to Japan to track down that guard to bring him to justice as a war criminal. In the process, they learned that he was a young teenager from Hiroshima, and had lost all his family in the atomic bombing, and had shot their son in a paroxysm of grief and desire for revenge. By the time they found him, God had so worked in their hearts that they ended up legally adopting him. As my mother said, what is humanly impossible is possible for God. Hearing this story, the young man who had accosted us had nothing more to say.

I have certainly done my share of ignoring God’s standards, justifying myself, and it is dangerous indeed. However, I have also learned, with Paul, that “I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:13) God’s standards aren’t impossible, or even unrealistic, when we abide in Christ. At the same time, likewise with Paul, I know that it’s “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” (Philippians 3:12) Repentance is essential as a continuing practice, leading us into spiritual growth. My goal, after all, is the perfection of Jesus Christ my Lord!

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for the conference we’re leaving for this morning. I pray that these four days would be all that You intend them to be, opening the minds and hearts of all the participants, so that individually and collectively we may be transformed more and more into the likeness of Your Son, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!