Lust begins in the heart long before it appears in action. You may never commit adultery, fornicate, or look at pornography and yet you may still commit sexual sins. The religious leaders of Jesus day had taught the familiar concept of “look but don’t touch,” and then Jesus came on the scene to frustrate their law. In Matthew 5 Jesus said, “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 lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:27-28). Sin begins in the heart and it is there that we must address it if we want to truly put sin to death.
Addressing heart issues is never easy. We must begin by trying to understand the root of the problem. Jesus tells us that a good tree produces good fruit and a bad tree produces bad fruit, so if we’re producing bad fruit that means we have a bad root (Luke 6:43-44). We must dig deep to find the source of our sin. There can be any number of reasons why a person indulges in sexual sin. It may be an issue of control, coping, insecurity, arrogance, hunger for power, or simply just a selfish pursuit of pleasure. The impulse that drives us to sexual sin is not usually simply “sex.” There are other factors that cause us to crave sex in unhealthy, and especially unBiblical, contexts. Sometimes there are marital issues that are not being addressed, sometimes there are personal issues not being addressed.
Once we begin to see the root issues we must apply the truth of God’s Word to them. The apostle Paul tells us that if we are going to be transformed it will happen by the “renewing of our minds” (Romans 12:2). Paul says we have to change the way we think, and that means changing the way we think both about the root issues and about sex. We must see situations, people, and our responses as God sees them. This means fighting lustful thoughts with Biblical thoughts. This means saturating our minds with the words of Scripture, hiding God’s words in our heart that we might not sin against Him (Psalm 119:11). If we are removing unnecessary temptations from our lives, and working to break the cycle of habitual sin in conjunction with renewing our thoughts we have a greater chance of overcoming the power of sin.
Breaking free of sexual sin is not a simple task. There are no three-step processes, etc. And for most people this will be a battle they fight for the rest of their lives. Some have talked about sexual addictions, and I think that there is some truth to that label. A Christian neuroscientist has recently argued that what happens in the brain at the height of orgasm is similar to what happens to the brain on heroin. This is not an easy battle to fight. But calling it sexual addiction does not negate our responsibility to God. It is still a sin and we must fight against it no matter how hard. We must, “by the Spirit… put to death the deeds of the body” (Romans 8:13). It is hard, but fundamentally we must conclude that Jesus is worth the work and the effort of fighting against sexual sin.
Sparrow & Heart Soul Care 