{"id":372,"date":"2014-09-01T12:00:46","date_gmt":"2014-09-01T12:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?p=372"},"modified":"2014-08-27T20:43:53","modified_gmt":"2014-08-27T20:43:53","slug":"matthew-527-30-adultery-word-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/09\/matthew-527-30-adultery-word-study.html","title":{"rendered":"Matthew 5:27-30; Adultery (Word Study)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cAnyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery,\u201d Christ said in his Sermon on the Mount.<\/p>\n<p>Some have interpreted this statement to mean that, outside of marriage, any acknowledgment of feminine beauty by a man is adultery\u2014 the assumption being that noticing a woman\u2019s attractiveness automatically coincides with sexual desire. As a result, they often demand that women are responsible to prevent men from being tempted to sin over their bodies, perhaps by covering themselves physically from neck to foot (and sometimes veiling faces), by refusing to wear make-up, by avoiding modern clothing styles deemed \u201crevealing,\u201d and so on.<\/p>\n<p>Though popular in some circles, that perspective seems to be a mistake in thinking of Pharisaical proportions.<\/p>\n<p>The Greek word translated as \u201clustfully\u201d in the NIV is a variation on the term, <em>epithymia<\/em>, which means \u201cstrong desire.\u201d In this context it clearly refers to a thought-life that goes well beyond simple appreciation or acknowledgment of God-given beauty in a feminine form.<\/p>\n<p><em>Epithymia<\/em> here refers to a strong desire to consume God\u2019s beautiful creation through intentional, inappropriate action at the expense of that creation. Or, as theologian Larry Richards explains it, \u201cA sexual desire stimulated by the sin nature\u2014a desire that seeks to possess and use persons who are not rightly objects of desire.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In other words, if your imagination is using a woman as a pornographic tool for mental sexual stimulation, that\u2019s \u201clooking at a woman lustfully\u201d\u2014and is adultery. Acknowledging and appreciating God-given beauty in a woman, however, is not.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/workscited.html\">Works Cited<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>[EDB, 423]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u2126\u2126\u2126<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Bible Study Nerds\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-for-bible-study-nerds.html\">About: For Bible Study Nerds\u2122<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Mike Nappa\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-mike-nappa.html\">About: Mike Nappa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2014 to present by\u00a0<a title=\"Nappaland Communications Inc. official website\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nappaland.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nappaland Communications Inc<\/a>. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cAnyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery,\u201d Christ said in his Sermon on the Mount. Some have interpreted this statement to mean that, outside of marriage, any acknowledgment of feminine beauty by a man is adultery\u2014 the assumption being that noticing a woman\u2019s attractiveness automatically coincides with sexual desire. As a&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":571,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,15],"tags":[147,148,76],"class_list":["post-372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-matthew","category-wordstudies","tag-adultery","tag-beauty","tag-temptation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Matthew 5:27-30; Adultery (Word Study) - For Bible Study Nerds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/09\/matthew-527-30-adultery-word-study.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Matthew 5:27-30; Adultery (Word Study) - For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cAnyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery,\u201d Christ said in his Sermon on the Mount. Some have interpreted this statement to mean that, outside of marriage, any acknowledgment of feminine beauty by a man is adultery\u2014 the assumption being that noticing a woman\u2019s attractiveness automatically coincides with sexual desire. As a&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/09\/matthew-527-30-adultery-word-study.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-09-01T12:00:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-08-27T20:43:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mike Nappa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Matthew 5:27-30; Adultery (Word Study) - For Bible Study Nerds","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/09\/matthew-527-30-adultery-word-study.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Matthew 5:27-30; Adultery (Word Study) - For Bible Study Nerds","og_description":"\u201cAnyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery,\u201d Christ said in his Sermon on the Mount. Some have interpreted this statement to mean that, outside of marriage, any acknowledgment of feminine beauty by a man is adultery\u2014 the assumption being that noticing a woman\u2019s attractiveness automatically coincides with sexual desire. As a&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/09\/matthew-527-30-adultery-word-study.html","og_site_name":"For Bible Study Nerds","article_published_time":"2014-09-01T12:00:46+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-08-27T20:43:53+00:00","author":"Mike Nappa","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/09\/matthew-527-30-adultery-word-study.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/09\/matthew-527-30-adultery-word-study.html","name":"Matthew 5:27-30; Adultery (Word Study) - For Bible Study Nerds","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-09-01T12:00:46+00:00","dateModified":"2014-08-27T20:43:53+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/09\/matthew-527-30-adultery-word-study.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/09\/matthew-527-30-adultery-word-study.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/09\/matthew-527-30-adultery-word-study.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Matthew 5:27-30; Adultery (Word Study)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/","name":"For Bible Study Nerds","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Mike Nappa","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575","name":"Mike Nappa","description":"Mike Nappa is an entertainment journalist at FamilyFans.com, a bestselling author\u2014and a notorious Bible Study Nerd. He's a former youth pastor who shepherded kids on staff at Chuck Swindoll's church in Southern California\u2014and he's a bestselling and award-winning author with more than a million copies of his books sold worldwide. Plus, he holds a degree in Christian Education with an emphasis in Bible Theology. So, you know, he\u2019s got that going for him. Mike is also a pop culture dork who watches too much TV, reads too many comic books, utters too many bad words, laughs at all the wrong jokes, and often gets in trouble because he says whatever he happens to be thinking at the moment\u2014like quoting an R-rated movie in the middle of a sermon. Yeah, he\u2019s a mess (just like you!), but he kind of likes it that way. Most of all, Mike Nappa loves Jesus, and he figures that covers over a multitude of sins. 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