A WORD FOR TODAY, March 25, 2025
Peggy Hoppes
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Blessings. Peg
A WORD FOR TODAY, March 25, 2025
Part of my prayer life during Lent will be an examination of conscience using the seven deadly sins. I will daily pray through a number of questions for each sin: Pride, Envy, Sloth, Lust, Covetousness, Gluttony, Anger. Will you join me? Remember, this is about examining yourself, not seeing others in these questions. If you see others, consider it as a mirror and ponder your own life in light of that judgment.
This week is “Lust.”
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery;’ but I tell you that everyone who gazes at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart. If your right eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it away from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your members should perish than for your whole body to be cast into Gehenna. If your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off, and throw it away from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your members should perish, than for your whole body to be cast into Gehenna.” Matthew 5:27-30, WEB
We are studying the book of Proverbs in our adult Sunday school class. It is an interesting book to study because it is filled with so much wisdom about how to live your best life. It is also a hard book to study because it is filled with so much wisdom! Nearly twenty chapters are one or two liners, there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to the way it has been organized. One chapter might give tips on money, relationships, working hard, eating right, taking care of creation, honoring authority, etc. The main thing that holds it all together is Proverbs 1:7, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” This idea of fearing the Lord is found twenty times in Proverbs, and it is where we begin the life He intends for us. The proverbs give us a choice, two paths we can walk. Will we follow Wisdom or Folly?
Proverbs personifies Wisdom and Folly as two women. While most of the book is line after line of good advice, the first nine chapters are more narrative in nature. It tells the story of a father speaking to his son about wisdom. Chapter nine pulls the narration together. In it, the two women invite us to a feast. Wisdom is a beautiful and gracious woman who cries out to all who will hear. She invites us to come and drink. Folly calls out, too, using the same language as Wisdom, but she’s too lazy to seek them. She settles for those who fall in her trap. She tries to make people change their paths. In Proverbs 7, her seduction reaches all the senses, drawing us into her house. Her invitation sounds attractive, and she may speak like Wisdom, but she offers a much different meal. Wisdom leads to life, and Folly, the adulterous, leads to death.
I once read a story yesterday that not only made me shake my head, but it reminded me why it is good to be obedient to God’s Word. Following the commands of God can actually protect us from evil that might befall us. The story was about a man whose neighbors asked to use his pool. The woman asked her husband to return to their home to get her cigarettes and when he was gone asked the man if she could skinny dip. He agreed and then watched as she swam naked in his pool, amused by her. Meanwhile, the husband did not actually return to their home. He spent twenty minutes emptying the man s house of more than a thousand dollars’ worth of stuff, including jewelry and a handgun.
The man may have thought there was nothing wrong with watching the woman in his pool; after all she invited herself into his life by asking permission to do it. However, Jesus tells us that the man who lusts after a woman has committed adultery in His heart. The man learned the hard way that his lust was dangerous to his own person, but that’s not Jesus’ biggest concern. Lust leads to adultery, just as other sins lead to bigger sins. When we follow our earthly passions, we find ourselves bound to the flesh instead of following the God who offers the greater blessings. The man may have enjoyed those twenty minutes, but it made his life far more difficult in the end. And if he was a Christian, his actions did not glorify God.
The consequences of our own lust might not be discovered so easily, but we will suffer consequences, too, especially if we allow even the seemingly harmless inner feelings affect the way we act. We might suffer in a tangible way, but certainly our sinful thoughts and behavior do not glorify God. And though God has forgiven us those sins of our hearts, our bondage to sin can lead us away from God’s grace into a life that focuses on the satisfaction of our inner desires.
In the Examination of Conscience that I am using as a prayer practice this Lent, lust is defined as
“Lust is the love of the pleasures that are contrary to purity.” Jesus reminds us that though lust is hidden in in our hearts, it is as bad as the sins that are visible and tangible. This makes us really consider the questions for this week in a different way. Have I desired or done impure things? Have I taken pleasure in entertaining impure thoughts or desires? Have I read impure material, listened to music with impure lyrics, or looked at impure images, whether in photos or on television or in movies or on the Internet? Have I aroused sexual desire in myself or another by impure kissing, embracing, or touching? Have I committed impure actions alone, i.e., masturbation? Do I dress immodestly or am I too concerned with the way I look? Do I use vulgar language or tell or listen to impure jokes or stories? Have I given into desires of adultery even in my imagination?
As we consider the deadly sin of lust, let us remember that we are not to love the pleasures that are contrary to God’s intention for His people. The questions seem so prudish. We think we live in a different world, that most of those pleasures are not a big deal. Every television show and movie includes sex. Commercial advertisers use sex to sell their products. If we were to avoid anything that might make us lust in our hearts, we’d have to turn off the television and avoid social media. It is hard to consider, but maybe, just maybe, that is the truly wise thing to do.
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