What is the context?
The second example concerns the command against adultery in Exodus 20:14 and Deuteronomy 5:18. As with anger and murder, Jesus brings attention to what is happening within a person before the outward act. He describes looking at a woman in order to lust after her, and calls that adultery in the heart.
The verb for lusting is ἐπιθυμέω, epithymeō (eh-pee-thoo-MEH-oh), to desire or set one's heart on something. Thayer's Greek Lexicon notes its sexual use here and its use for coveting elsewhere. The surrounding words identify the desire at issue. The command against coveting a neighbor's wife in Exodus 20:17 also shows that the Law already addressed desire within the heart.
Jesus then uses the vivid pictures of an eye and a hand causing a person to sin. Losing something precious is presented as better than allowing sin to bring the whole person to ruin. The repeated warning makes the cost of resisting sin smaller than the cost of surrendering to it.
The responsibility remains with the person looking and nurturing the desire. The passage calls for faithfulness within the heart and a serious response to whatever leads a person away from it. The following verses continue the concern for marital faithfulness by addressing divorce.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Christian readings commonly understand the passage as calling for purity of intention and a decisive break with what leads to sin. Chrysostom's Homily 17 on Matthew and Wesley's notes on Matthew 5:29–30 read the eye and hand as forceful pictures of parting with something deeply valued that leads a person into sin, rather than instructions to injure the body.
Where does this fit in God's plan?
The New Testament places the struggle against sinful desire within the new life God gives in Christ. Colossians 3:5–10 calls for putting sinful practices to death and describes the new self being renewed in the Creator's image. The aim reaches further than avoiding a visible offense: God is renewing the person from within.
Romans 6:12–14 calls people brought from death to life to offer the parts of their bodies to God for righteousness. 1 Corinthians 6:18–20 connects sexual faithfulness with belonging to God and being bought at a price. The body is to honor the One who has redeemed it. That larger purpose gives direction to the costly resistance Jesus describes.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.