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 as possessing adulterous lust.”

c. A.D. 175: “We are so far from practicing promiscuous intercourse that it is not lawful among us to indulge even a lustful look. For He says, ‘He that looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery already in his heart.’”

They did not teach sinless perfection or salvation by works; they did teach that a believer can fall away and that “once saved, always saved” was a later innovation opposed by the fathers and associated with Gnostic errors. (For a longer treatment, see my documentary Once Saved, Always Saved on YouTube.)

Lust and adultery: not a clever analogy, but a fact

Part of Jesus’ force here is descriptive: if you indulge lust, your “I’ve never committed adultery” badge is meaningless.

If circumstances aligned—privacy, proposition, timing—you know where a lusting heart wants to go. Everyone recognizes the “dirty old man” who leers yet boasts he’s never cheated; no one calls that righteousness. Lust is adultery of the heart, full stop.

Scripture’s wider witness

Jesus’ warning isn’t isolated. The New Testament stacks passage upon passage with the same seriousness and the same outcome:

* Mark 7:21–23: “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries… All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.”

* 1 Corinthians 6:9–10: “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither fornicators… nor adulterers… will inherit the Kingdom of God.”

* Ephesians 5:3–6: “But sexual immorality and all impurity and covetousness must not even be named among you… For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure… has no inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.”

* Colossians 3:5–8: “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire… On account of these, the wrath of God is coming.”

* 1 Thessalonians 4:3–8: “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality… that no one transgress… because the Lord is an avenger in all these things… Whoever disregards this, disregards not man, but God, who gives His Holy Spirit to you.”

* Revelation 21:8: “…the sexually immoral… their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

The pattern is consistent: this is not optional; the consequence is hell. “Let no one deceive you with empty words.”

Don’t let anyone steal your treasure

Scripture exalts the fear of the Lord as a priceless gift and a protective fountain:

* “He will be the stability of your times… and the fear of the LORD is his treasure.” (Isaiah 33:6)

* “The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, that one may avoid the snares of death.” (Proverbs 14:27)

* “By the fear of the LORD one keeps away from evil.” (Proverbs 16:6)

Today many say “fear” simply means reverence. But if you’re trapped in bondage—and lust is a dopamine-driven bondage—the fear of God is the rope that can pull you out. If “once saved, always saved” isn’t true and hell awaits those who persist in unrepentant sin, then the fear of the Lord becomes your lifeline. Don’t let anyone steal it.

My testimony: “The first look is temptation; the second look is sin”

I used to believe it was impossible not to lust. The breakthrough came with a simple distinction: you can’t control the first look; you can absolutely refuse the second. That second look is the choice to lust.

Realizing that made obedience plausible—and then, by the Spirit, actual. Around the same time the Lord freed me from alcohol (my chief bondage), He freed me from pornography and from choosing lust. It’s been two and a half years. I’m careful not to boast; I still police “loopholes” like second-glancing a face. But genuine freedom is real.

Freedom has come with a surprising feature: the suffering diminishes. Early on, resisting felt unbearable—like the day I rode past a line of women in bikinis and nearly reeled under the temptation. More recently, spending a day amid swimsuits at Nashville’s Opryland water park, I still didn’t look—and the inner battle, while real, was far lighter than two years prior. I don’t blame Babylon for being Babylon; I’m responsible for my eyes and my heart. And walking out that day, I felt the deep relief of no longer living in a bottomless pit of diminishing returns and growing slavery.

Repentance that sticks: teetotaling, burned bridges, and the fear of God

White-knuckling and dabbling keep you enslaved. The bridge back to sin must be burned. That’s what the fear of the Lord does—turns “I’ll try to quit” into “I’m done for good.”

A few hard-won lessons from that process:

* Teetotaling is the only option. Keep “dipping a toe,” and you’ll be back under it. You can die out there in backsliding. Repeated returns quench the Holy Spirit and open doors to the enemy’s temptations. Six months later, you’re numb to conviction and shopping for doctrines that excuse the bondage.

* Support groups aren’t the engine of freedom. Use them if they help, but recognize they often replace the fear of God with the fear of disappointing people. That may restrain you for a while; it won’t burn the bridge.

* Expect the loopholes. “Just the face.” “Just audio.” “Just if she’s not married.” Satan will throw a menu of compromises. Refuse them all.

And when you do slip, don’t presume on grace. Confess immediately and return like the prodigal for good—not for another month of cycles.

“If your right eye makes you stumble…”

I’ve heard “hyperbole” in nearly every sermon on Matthew 5:29–30. There is hyperbole in the first clause (“tear it out… cut it off”); gouging eyes and severing hands don’t cure the heart. A blind person can lust; a one-handed person can still sin. But the second clause is sober, literal truth:

“For it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.”

On masturbation: some insist it’s always sin. I’m cautious. It is usually sin and tangled with dopamine addiction, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Lord convinced me it’s always sin. At minimum, treat it as a holiness issue before God, not a loophole.

Hell is real—and intolerable

Jesus spoke more about hell than heaven, using graphic language shared across Scripture. If you’ve softened hell into something tolerable—or into nonexistence—reconsider. I keep a YouTube playlist of vetted “hell testimonies”; the first is Bill Wiese’s 23 Minutes in Hell. What struck me was the consistency and the trauma: bodies that “regenerate” only to be tormented again; a world “more real” than this one; heat, stench, darkness, demonic cruelty—witnessed by people who seem deeply marked and unlikely to fabricate it. You don’t build a life on experiences, but let Scripture interpret them: nothing is worth your soul. Burn the bridge.

Suffering as part of sanctification

Resisting temptation is a form of suffering Scripture actually commends:

1 Peter 4:1–6: “Since, then, Christ has suffered in the flesh, you must also arm yourselves with a determination to do the same, because he who has suffered in the flesh has done with sin, that, in future, you may spend the rest of your earthly lives governed not by human passions, but by the will of God; for you’ve given time enough in the past to the doing of things which the Gentiles delight in pursuing.”

Over time, the suffering of saying “no” recedes; the freedom grows. That is the fruit of repentance and the Spirit’s power, not of loopholes or clever self-talk.

The final word

Jesus’ words are not optional. Lust is not harmless; it is adultery of the heart, and its end is hell. But there is real hope: repent, receive the Holy Spirit’s power, and treasure the fear of the Lord. Burn the bridge. Don’t let anyone steal that treasure from you. It is, as Proverbs says, a fountain of life.

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