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April 2, 2004
Lust
Filed under: Hot Topic
The dictionary defines lust as:
Intense or unrestrained sexual craving.
An overwhelming desire or craving.
Intense eagerness or enthusiasm.
Defined by one person as "an inordinate craving for the pleasures of the body," lust is number four on the list of seven deadly sins. It is often connected with sex and, according to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, sex is second only to food in basic human motivations. The drive and desire for sex appeal is apparent amongst all humans and animals. As a man once said, "God has given men two wonderful organs, their sexual organ and their brain... But only enough blood to run one at a time."
In October of 2002, Charles Rush preached a sermon titled "Lust, the Vice" and detailed some of lust's roots during Greek and Roman history. Quoting Julius Caesar, as Julius was commenting on the Cataline's army in 63 b.c. said "Maidens and boys were raped; children were torn from their parents' embrace; married ladies were subjected to the conqueror's pleasure; temples and homes were looted; there was slaughter and arson. In short, everything was filled with weapons, bodies, blood, and lamentation (Catiline 51.9)."
Rush translates the names of some Greek gods - one particularly interesting god "family" emerged - "the god of violence (Ares) and the goddess of lust (Aphrodite) had an affair and together they bred the twin children panic (Deimos) and dread (Phobos).
Rush goes on.. "just after Jesus died, Gaius Caesar became emperor in 37 a.d., and he openly slept with all three of his sisters, treating one of them like his wife. He had a fund raiser once using the wives of the Roman senators and other boys to set up a brothel. In his own life, excess led to excess, much as one can say about the broad outlines of the Roman Empire as a whole. Gaius Caesar is more popularly known by his nickname, Caligula.
The scary thing about lust is that it is never satisfied. It always needs more. Daily, we are in the process of becoming who we are becoming. When lust is a part of our lives, that daily "becoming" is infiltrated with desires and passions that take our "becoming" to different places that in the end might not have been what we saw at the beginning.
St. Thomas used to say that desire was not bad in and of itself. It becomes a problem when it is misdirected. Then it becomes a perversion of the good. That is what evil actually looks like, it is a perversion of the good.
The Bible has a lot to say about lust...
Job 31:1-4
"I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl. For what is man's lot from God above, his heritage from the Almighty on high? Is it not ruin for the wicked, disaster for those who do wrong? Does he not see my ways and count my every step?"
Proverbs 6:23-29
"For these commands are a lamp, this teaching is a light, and the corrections of discipline are the way to life, keeping you from the immoral woman, from the smooth tongue of the wayward wife. Do not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes, for the prostitute reduces you to a loaf of bread, and the adulteress preys upon your very life. Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned?
Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched? So is he who sleeps with another man's wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished."
Matthew 5:28
"But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart."
Choice words from the The Message version put it this way: "Your heart can be corrupted by lust even quicker than your body." And in reference to those who do mess up and decide to make excuses through divorce or separation, "You can't use legal cover to mask moral failure."
Ephesians 4:19
"Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more."
Colossians 3:5
"Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry."
1 John 2:16
"For everything in the world - the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does - comes not from the Father but from the world."
Galatians 5:16-24
"I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires."
Is it possible to take our lust and re-direct it? To strive for what Paul outlines - love, joy, peace, patience, etc.? To live life by the spirit and not by our eyes?
"An enemy to whom you show kindness becomes your friend, excepting lust, the indulgence of which increases its enmity." - Saadi
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