lease begin by reading the Shema out loud and continue trying to memorize it.

“Hear, O Israel. The LORD is our God. The LORD alone. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Amen.”

Also, recite The Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12).

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Today we continue studying Jesus’ explanation of the commandments.

Read Matthew 5:27-32 (out loud).

Again, Jesus was showing that He had s’mikhah because He began with “You have heard it said…” and then continued with “But I tell you….”

In today’s text, He explained adultery. Basically, adultery involved the breaking of a covenant. In this context, Jesus was talking about the breaking of the marriage covenant. When two people got married they promised to stay sexually faithful to each other. When a person was not faithful in their marriage sexually, then adultery had occurred.

Here Jesus showed that God’s intention had more to do with the heart than obeying the rule. Jesus said that if a person looked lustfully at another person then adultery had occurred within the heart. Do you think this applied to relationships before marriage? If Jesus was saying that looking at a person lustfully was the equivalent of being sexually unfaithful in your heart, how would this apply to relationships between men and women that were not married?

Read Leviticus 20:10 (out loud) to find out what the punishment was for adultery. Read John 8:3-11 (out loud) to see what happened when Jesus was confronted with an adulteress. In addition to coming to fulfill the Law, Jesus also came to earth to extend forgiveness and to urge us to leave our lives of sin.

As you reflect on your own personal purity, do you make decisions that encourage you in your walk with Christ? Do you put yourself in situations that might lead to lust? Think about the movies and television shows that you choose to watch. Think about your relationships. Think about how you look at others – whether you know them or not. Does a woman who is barely dressed draw your attention? Does a man who is showing his body cause you to fantasize?  Do you have a responsibility to look away if someone else chooses not to be modest?

Remember that according to Luke 11:34 “Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body is full of light. But when they are bad, your body is also full of darkness.” We must guard our eyes. Yes, we have the responsibility to look away if someone chooses not to honor God with his or her body. And we should be sensitive in how we dress, so that we don’t cause someone else to struggle. In his book, Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “Your eye, when it is serving impure desire, cannot see God.”

Hebrews 12:16-17 says, “See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He couldn’t bring about a change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.”

Bonhoeffer said, “It [lust] causes human beings to sell their heavenly birthright for a bowl of porridge.”

Why would we give up what is eternal for something that is temporary? Truly, that is the question we must ask ourselves daily as we make hard choices.

Guard your heart that you might not lust. Read verses 29 and 30 again in Matthew 5. 

Do you think that God takes this seriously? Do you?

Source:
Dietrich Bonhoeffer Discipleship