Make no Provisions

Like David, sinners are idolaters. The only image of God to which they bow, is the one of their own making, and that congenial god isn’t to be feared. It is a “dumb idol” and therefore it has no sense of justice and no moral dictate. It doesn’t say, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:27-28).

Jesus is quoting the Seventh Commandment, and in doing so He tells us that the Law is “spiritual,” reminding us that God “requires truth in the inwards parts.” Our Creator sees the thought-life and tells us that every time we lust, we commit adultery in the heart. Think then of the serious nature of looking with lust. Every time we do it, we are committing adultery. We are sinning as much as King David sinned when he took another man’s wife and slept her.

That should scare the daylights out of us and help us to guide our sin-loving eyes. That should help us to rid our minds of our own concept of what God is like. If we see our Creator as He is revealed in Scripture, we should tremble and fall on our faces in fear.  That’s what it means to bow to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The moment you surrendered to Him as Lord, you said “Not my will, but yours be done.” That means you only look at, touch, hear, and think about that which is pleasing to Him:  ^“But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts” (Romans 13:14).

To be continued...