Matthew 5: 27 - 30 NKJV
I've never had one of my eyes gouged out, but according to Jesus I should have. I'm talking about my usual reaction to a attractive female, which is rarely focised on how good of a person she may be. Who's wife or daughter she may be in that moment seems pretty unimportant. More important seems to be her physical attractiveness and attributes. This is how men are. Where women are more centered to emotional and other behavior attributes, men are more often than not drawn to a physical attraction pleasing to the eye. Men are visually stimulated. I guess Jesus knew this as He gave His thoughts on the Mount of Olives that day. He should, He created me in all that I am. It is Jesus Himself who I live as today {Galations 2:20}. For some time I had figured that I somehow needed to change who I was in respect to my thoughts towards women. However, after more than a few heart to heart chats with a few godly men I've come away with a different view. Yes, Jesus knew exactly the challenges of temptation that we would face. He Himself also faced the temptations which we face, yet without sin {Hebrews 4:15}. I can hear the nay sayers already, "yeah, but that was back then and things have changed!" Really? Ok, since we already know that men are more drawn to visual attributes of a female by design, what has changed? Nothing! How men often see women is the same today as it was in that day of Jesus. Yes, men in Jesus' day did not have movies, magazines and Al Gores internet, but they still definately struggled with their own temptations when it came to how they viewed women. Just ask Abraham and our old friend king David. The temptations of the opposite sex have been around for some time. For if they hadn't, then maybe Jesus wouldn't have seen the need to bring up such temptations. However, since we find this teaching of Jesus in Matthew 5, it's my belief that the men of Jesus' day indeed struggled with that very same issue which we do today.
6knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be adone away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7For he who has died has been bfreed from sin. 8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6: 6 - 11 NKJV
One of the things that a old friend of mine told me some time ago on the topic of men and their visual lusts towards women was to think of who is sharing our sight...and thoughts. Indeed, if we live today as Christ Jesus who is within us, then it is Jesus Himself who shares our each and every thought and gaze. He sees what we see. We may shudder at the very thought of Jesus watching pornography, but isn't that what is happening for those of us who have that Spirit of Jesus in us yet we choose to engage in the temptations of lust? Would that give you a new perpsective? It did for me. For we live today through the eyes of Jesus, He sees what we see. That doesn't mean that He will suddenly leave His place within us should we stumble and fall in our temptations. It does, however, mean that He may be grieved for He knows that He has so much better in store for us. May we never make that claim that Jesus somehow does not know just what we are going through. For not only do we live as Christ today, He was intimately involved in our very creation. Not only did Jesus face the very same temptations which we today face, He did so without sin. He knows His children, and He knows what is best for us. When we see through the eyes of Jesus, we always see things as they were meant to be.
~Scott~
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