Covet & Lust?

What do we think of when we hear the word lust? Something sexually related, right?

We think of lust as being wrong, sinful.

But what about the fact that the word lust is something that is sometimes used in a good way in the bible? Look at 1 Timothy 3:1:
This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.


Oh but wait. Where is the word lust in that verse?

The answer to that question lies in the fact that sometimes the original word was translated not always as lust but sometimes as desire and sometimes as covet. In this passage it is the word desireth.

Did you know that the original word for covet is the greek
Epithumeo? And did you know that this is the same word for
lust?

Matthew 5:27-28

Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:
But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

This passage has been used many times to imply that sexuality is evil.

So often we hear that one must not cross the line in his sexual thoughts. Oh how often we’ve heard this. So many times has the implication been made that the mind and the body are evil.



Covet and Lust

The Lord was saying in Matt 27-28 that if a man coveted a woman that belonged to another man, then not only is he breaking the Tenth Commandment but he would go on to break the Seventh Commandment.

Pretty simple yet for centuries or more this passage has been hijacked by the Ascetics.

Jesus had already said that if a man were to break the command to not bear false witness against his brother then he would go on to commit murder. Matt 5:21-22

So then what He is saying in Matt 5:27-28 is that if a man were to break the command not to covet what his neighbor has, then he would go on to break the commandment about adultery.
If Jesus had instead said that if a man were to covet his neighbor car, He might have then said that the man commit the sin of stealing in his heart.

Meaning, that if he would covet, then he would go on to break whatever command it would take to get what is coveted.

But this passage has been used a billion times to impugn the heterosexual male.

A long time ago it was believed by the Jews that women were genetically more spiritual somehow. We know this is not true but they believed it because she was not made from mud as Adam was. So they got all fouled up in their thinking. Conversely they reasoned that man was not as spiritual as woman. Wrong. Neither one is more or less spiritual by nature than the other.