# Lust is Adultery - Matthew 5:27-30 - Vine Abiders #3 with Chris White

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/vine-abiders-podcast-7468317/lust-is-adultery-matthew-5-27-30-vine-abiders-3-with-chris-white
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/vine-abiders-podcast-7468317/lust-is-adultery-matthew-5-27-30-vine-abiders-3-with-chris-white.md
Podcast: [Vine Abiders Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/vine-abiders-podcast-7468317)
Published: 2025-09-10T23:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://vineabiders.substack.com/p/lust-matthew-527-30-vine-abiders
Audio file: https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/173303141/98d1d0842d9e32ef05e85e0e50513233.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/vine-abiders-podcast-7468317/episodes/lust-is-adultery-matthew-5-27-30-vine-abiders-3-with-chris-white
Duration seconds: 2518

## Resource

Lust, Adultery, and the Fear of the Lord: Taking Jesus at His Word We’ve reached Matthew 5:27–30 in the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus confronts lust head-on: “You have heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery, but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you, for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you, for it is better to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.” The plain sense is hard to miss. As anger is to murder, so lust is to adultery; and the stakes are eternal. For years I resisted that plain sense, assuming it was impossible for men not to lust—so Christ must mean something else , a kind of reverse psychology to push us toward grace. But that reading collapses under two things: the testimony of the early church and the consistency of the rest of Scripture. What the earliest Christians taught Before Constantine the church spoke with striking unity about salvation, holiness, and judgment. They believed Jesus meant exactly what He said and that Christians must actually obey Him. Consider these early witnesses: Justin Martyr (A.D. 100–165): “For not only he who in act commits adultery is rejected by Him, but also he who desires to commit adultery: since not only our works, but also our thoughts, are open before God. And many will be found who have restrained themselves from the commission of adultery; but who have not abstained from adulterous desire. And such will be convicted by this very teaching of Christ, as being sinners, and a…

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