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“Guard your heart.” That is both a command and a spiritual survival strategy.
Let us look at what the Word of God says:
> “Keep your heart with all diligence,
> For out of it spring the issues of life.”
> — Proverbs 4:23 (NKJV)
And again, the words of Jesus:
> “You have heard that it was said, ‘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.
> If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you;
> for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish,
> than for your whole body to be cast into hell.
> And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you;
> for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish,
> than for your whole body to be cast into hell.”
> — Matthew 5:27–30 (NKJV)
And Paul adds:
> “Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body,
> but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.”
> — 1 Corinthians 6:18 (NKJV)
The song you’ve given centers on these piercing words of Jesus. It deals with the battlefield of the heart, the seriousness of sexual sin, the radical measures holiness demands, and the power of the Holy Spirit to enable a pure life.
This is not merely about outward behavior. It is about inward reality. Jesus moves from the act to the intention, from the deed to the desire, from the bed to the thought-life. The issue is not only what we do, but what we allow to live and grow in our hearts.
The central theme can be summarized in one phrase:
Guard your heart, for holiness begins within.
---
The main teaching in Matthew 5 comes from the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is speaking primarily to Jewish listeners, people who knew the Law of Moses, who had heard the Ten Commandments read in the synagogues and homes from their youth.
### “You have heard…” – The context of the Law
> “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’”
> — Matthew 5:27
The seventh commandment, “You shall not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14), was well known. Under the Law of Moses, adultery was a capital crime (Leviticus 20:10). The law dealt with outward acts. If you were caught in the act of adultery, you were liable to death. But if you merely desired, imagined, fantasized, no human court could reach you. The law could not enter the secret thoughts of the heart.
The scribes and Pharisees therefore had developed a kind of external righteousness—meticulous in outward observance, but often corrupt within.
Jesus addresses this directly:
> “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees,
> you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”
> — Matthew 5:20
Then He begins to unfold what that superior righteousness looks like. Not just murder, but anger. Not just adultery, but lust. He is not abolishing the Law. He is fulfilling it by revealing its true depth and intention.
### A King defining the law of His Kingdom
In Matthew 5–7, we have the King of the Kingdom defining the ethics of His Kingdom. He is not talking about some special elite group, but about all who would be His disciples. When Jesus says, “But I say to you,” He speaks with divine authority. He is not one rabbi among many; He is the Lawgiver Himself, explaining the true meaning of His own law.
At the same time, the audience lives in a culture steeped in religious forms but tolerating inward sin. Much like our own day: open immorality on the one hand, and on the other, religious people content with external appearance. Jesus cuts through the hypocrisy. He puts His finger on the inner life.
The song captures this tension:
> “The old law touched the act, but Jesus sees the thought
> He calls us higher—to holiness we never bought”
Jesus is confronting a people who thought they were safe because they had not broken the visible boundaries. He dismantles this false security by exposing the inner reality of the heart.
---
### 1. “Heart” – *kardia* (Greek) / *lev* (Hebrew)
In Matthew 5:28:
> “…has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
The Greek word is καρδία (*kardia*). It corresponds to the Hebrew לֵב (*lev*). In Scripture, “heart” does not mean mere emotions. It is the inner core of a person: thoughts, intentions, will, moral center.
Proverbs 4:23 uses *lev*:
> “Keep your heart (*lev*) with all diligence,
> For out of it spring the issues of life.”
The heart is the fountainhead. What is in the heart will eventually determine words, actions, and destiny.
So when Jesus says adultery can be committed “in the heart,” He is saying:
Before sin is an outward act, it is an inward condition. The heart can commit sin while the body sits in a church pew.
### 2. “Lustfully” – *epithumeō* (Greek)
In Matthew 5:28:
> “…whoever looks at a woman to lust for her…”
The verb is ἐπιθυμέω (*epithumeō*). It is a compound word: *epi* (upon, toward) + *thumos* (desire, passion). It means to set desire upon something, to long for, to covet.
This word is morally neutral by itself. It can be used for good desire (Luke 22:15 – Jesus “earnestly desired” to eat the Passover) or for evil desire. What makes it sinful here is the context: a man looking at a woman with the intention or purpose of sexually desiring what God has not given him.
The issue is not simply that you happen to notice a woman is attractive. The issue is the will directing the gaze for the purpose of feeding forbidden desire. It is a chosen, cultivated inner act.
So, Jesus is not merely condemning involuntary temptation. He is addressing the deliberate exercise of desire through the eye and imagination.
Understanding these words deepens the song’s repeated line:
> “Anyone who looks at a woman lustfully
> Has already committed adultery with her in his heart”
This is not a poetic exaggeration. It is precise moral diagnosis:
A deliberate, lustful look is the internal equivalent of the external act.
---
We will move through the main themes expressed in the lyrics and connect them to Scripture.
### A. From External Command to Internal Reality
> “You have heard the ancient command
> ‘Do not commit adultery’
> But I tell you something deeper now…”
Jesus begins with what is known: “You shall not commit adultery.” Then He moves deeper.
This illustrates a universal biblical principle:
God is not content with external compliance; He demands inward truth.
Psalm 51:6:
> “Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts…”
Jeremiah 17:10:
> “I, the Lord, search the heart,
> I test the mind…”
Religious people often aim to manage appearances. God always aims at the source—the heart. The scribes were satisfied if they did not violate the letter of the command. Jesus exposes the intention behind the eyes and thoughts.
This transition—from act to intention—is central to Kingdom righteousness. The Law could expose sin and restrain behavior; but it could not transform the heart. Jesus comes as the One who not only interprets the Law, but through the Holy Spirit, writes it on the heart (Hebrews 8:10).
### B. The Eye and the Hand: Radical Dealing with Sin
> “If your right eye causes you to stumble
> Gouge it out and throw it away…
> If your right hand leads you to sin
> Cut it off—drastic measures for a pure heart”
This is deliberate hyperbole. Jesus is not advocating literal self-mutilation. If you plucked out one eye, the other could still lust. If you cut off one hand, the other could still sin. The problem is not in the physical organ, but in the heart directing it.
Yet notice: the language is severe on purpose. Jesus is teaching the radical seriousness of sin and the necessity of ruthless dealing with its occasions.
Two truths emerge:
1. Sin is deadly serious.
Jesus links refusal to deal with sin to the danger of hell:
> “…for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish,
> than for your whole body to be cast into hell.” (Matthew 5:29–30)
Hell is not a metaphor. Jesus treats it as a real, dreadful destiny. We must recover this fear of God.
2. Holiness requires decisive, costly action.
“Gouge it out… cut it off… throw it away.”
This speaks of separation from whatever repeatedly leads us into sin—relationships, environments, media, devices, habits.
Hebrews 12:4 says:
> “You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin.”
Many believers want victory, but they are not willing to take drastic steps. They seek freedom while keeping the very pathways that enslave them. Jesus says: cut them off.
The song expresses this:
> “Cut it off—drastic measures for a pure heart”
Holiness is not casual. It is not optional. It is costly, because it involves saying “no” to the flesh and “yes” to the cross.
### C. Sexual Sin: Unique in Its Consequences
> “Flee from sexual immorality
> Every other sin is outside the body
> But this one harms your very soul”
This reflects 1 Corinthians 6:18:
> “Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body,
> but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.”
The Greek word for sexual immorality is πορνεία (*porneia*). It covers all sexual activity outside the marriage covenant between one man and one woman.
Paul contrasts *porneia* with “every other sin.” Why? Not because other sins are harmless, but because sexual sin has a unique capacity to damage the inner person—soul, body, identity.
In the immediate context, Paul is teaching that the believer’s body is:
Sexual sin violates all three:
Therefore, Paul does not say, “Debate with sexual immorality.” He says, “Flee.” Run as Joseph ran from Potiphar’s wife (Genesis 39:12). Do not reason. Do not negotiate. Escape.
The song rightly captures Paul’s emphasis:
“Flee from sexual immorality… this one harms your very soul”
### D. The Springs of Life: Guarding the Heart
> “Keep your heart with all diligence
> For out of it flow the springs of life
> Guard your eyes, guard your mind, stay pure”
Proverbs 4:23 speaks of diligent guarding. The Hebrew phrase could be translated: “Guard your heart more than anything that is guarded.” The picture is of a city gate, a guarded spring, a protected treasury.
From the heart flow “the issues (or springs) of life.” Whatever dominates the heart will direct the stream of your life—your words, relationships, destiny.
This is why Jesus connects the eye (the gateway) to the heart (the reservoir). What enters through the eye and ear can lodge in the heart. Therefore, to guard the heart, we must guard the gateways.
Job sets a practical example:
> “I have made a covenant with my eyes;
> Why then should I look upon a young woman?”
> — Job 31:1
This is a covenant of the eyes—a determined agreement within oneself, before God, about what one will and will not look at.
The song condenses this into clear instruction:
“Guard your eyes, guard your mind, stay pure”
### E. The Old Law and the New Life in the Spirit
> “The old law touched the act, but Jesus sees the thought
> He calls us higher—to holiness we never bought
> Only by His Spirit can we walk this narrow road
> Clean hands, pure heart, carrying His lighter load”
Here we reach a vital theological point:
Jesus raises the standard and then supplies the power.
The Law defined sin, condemned sin, and threatened punishment. It was holy, but powerless to change us (Romans 8:3). Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, reveals the true height of God’s standard. But He does not stop there. He goes to the cross, rises, and sends the Holy Spirit to enable that very life.
Hebrews 10:16:
> “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord:
> I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them.”
Romans 8:3–4:
> “…what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh,
> God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin:
> He condemned sin in the flesh,
> that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
Notice: The law’s righteous requirement is not set aside; it is fulfilled in us as we walk in the Spirit. That is why the lyric says, “holiness we never bought.” We did not purchase it; Christ did. We do not produce it by willpower; the Spirit works it in us as we yield.
The “narrow road” Jesus spoke of (Matthew 7:14) is not walked in our own strength. The Spirit empowers obedience, but He does not exempt us from decisions. He strengthens our will to obey.
### F. God’s Aim: Surrendered Hearts, Not Mere Rules
> “God wants more than outward rules kept
> He wants hearts fully surrendered, fully kept
> Purity begins inside, where only He can see
> By His power we live clean and walk free”
This is the essence of the New Covenant.
Ezekiel 36:26–27:
> “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you;
> I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
> I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes,
> and you will keep My judgments and do them.”
Notice the sequence:
1. New heart
2. New spirit
3. God’s Spirit within
4. Result: obedience
God’s target is always the heart. The Pharisees cleaned the outside of the cup; Jesus insisted the inside must first be made clean (Matthew 23:25–26). When the heart is right, life will follow.
This also means that dealing with lust and sexual sin is not only a matter of techniques or rules. It is fundamentally a matter of heart alignment with God—surrendered, filled, governed by the Holy Spirit.
---
We need concrete steps. Scripture always brings us to decision and action. I will summarize this under four headings.
### 1. Acknowledge Sin at the Heart Level
First, we must stop excusing or minimizing lust as “normal” or “harmless.”
1 John 1:9:
> “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Confession means speaking the same thing as God. If God says lust is sin, I agree with Him. I bring it into the light. No excuses. No blame-shifting.
Proclamation 1 (Confession of Truth):
“Lord Jesus, I acknowledge that lust in my heart is sin.
I agree with Your Word that looking with lust is adultery in the heart.
I bring my thoughts, desires, and imaginations into Your light.”
### 2. Make a Covenant with Your Eyes and Cut Off Occasions of Sin
Second, we must act decisively against the gateways and triggers.
This is your practical “gouge it out… cut it off.” Not symbolic, but real decisions, sometimes costly, that cut off the fuel supply to lust.
Galatians 5:24:
> “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
Crucifying the flesh is not pleasant. It is painful. But it is necessary.
Proclamation 2 (Covenant of Separation):
“By the grace of God, I refuse to feed lust through my eyes and mind.
I choose to cut off every source and situation that leads me into sexual sin.
My eyes, my hands, my body belong to the Lord Jesus Christ.”
### 3. Flee, Don’t Negotiate
Third, we must adopt God’s strategy: flee.
1 Corinthians 6:18:
> “Flee sexual immorality…”
2 Timothy 2:22:
> “Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace…”
Fleeing is not cowardice; it is obedience. You do not debate with sexual temptation. You do not test how close you can get without falling. You run.
At the same time, fleeing is paired with pursuing. We do not simply run from; we run to:
This includes pursuing godly fellowship. Isolation often feeds secret sin. Bring your struggle into the light with a mature, trustworthy believer.
Proclamation 3 (Decision to Flee and Pursue):
“I choose to flee sexual immorality and youthful lusts.
I turn from them and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace
with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”
### 4. Yield to the Holy Spirit and Renew Your Mind
Fourth, overcoming lust is not achieved by emptiness, but by replacement.
Romans 12:2:
> “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…”
Philippians 4:8:
> “…whatever things are true… noble… just… pure… lovely… of good report…
> meditate on these things.”
You cannot merely stop thinking wrong thoughts. You must fill your mind with right thoughts. This is where Scripture meditation, worship, and Christ-centered fellowship become weapons.
Galatians 5:16:
> “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”
Walking in the Spirit means living in conscious dependence on, and obedience to, the Holy Spirit—allowing Him to shape desires, thoughts, and responses.
Proclamation 4 (Yielding to the Spirit):
“Holy Spirit, I yield myself to You.
Renew my mind with the Word of God.
Fill my heart with pure desires, holy thoughts, and the fear of the Lord.
Cause me to walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”
---
Let us now make a comprehensive proclamation, based on the Scriptures we have considered.
### Proclamation of Faith and Holiness
Say this aloud, thoughtfully and deliberately:
> **In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
> I affirm that my body is a member of Christ
> and a temple of the Holy Spirit.
> I have been bought with a price—the precious blood of Jesus.
> Therefore, I choose to glorify God in my body and in my spirit, which are God’s.
>
> I confess that looking with lust is adultery in the heart.
> I renounce all lustful thoughts, imaginations, and desires.
> I refuse to feed lust through my eyes, my ears, or my mind.
>
> I choose to guard my heart with all diligence,
> for out of it flow the springs of life.
> I make a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully.
> I choose to cut off every habit, relationship, or resource
> that leads me into sexual sin.
>
> By the power of the Holy Spirit,
> I flee sexual immorality and youthful lusts.
> I pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace
> with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
>
> I believe that God gives me a new heart and a new spirit.
> His laws are written in my mind and on my heart.
> By His Spirit at work in me,
> I can walk in holiness, with clean hands and a pure heart.
> I receive the grace of God to live clean and walk free,
> in Jesus’ name. Amen.**
### Prayer
Father, in the name of Jesus, I bring before You every person reading these words who is battling lust, pornography, immorality, or impurity of thought and desire.
Lord Jesus, You said that whoever commits sin is a slave of sin, but whom the Son sets free is free indeed. Stretch forth Your hand now to break every chain of sexual bondage. Expose every lie of the enemy. Bring sin out of hiding and into Your light.
Holy Spirit, convict of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Grant true repentance—a turning of the heart, not just of behavior. Write Your law on the heart. Produce in them the fear of the Lord, which is clean and enduring forever.
I ask You to cleanse their hearts by faith, to purify their imaginations, to renew their minds through Your Word. Where there has been defilement, bring cleansing. Where there has been shame, bring restoration. Where there has been repeated failure, release Your resurrection power.
Lord, set a guard over their eyes, their thoughts, their desires. Help them to take radical, costly steps—to cut off and cast away anything that causes them to stumble. Surround them with godly fellowship, wise counsel, and accountability.
I declare, according to Your Word, that it is possible to live in this generation with clean hands and a pure heart, not by human strength, but by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit.
Guard their hearts with Your peace. Fill them with love for righteousness and hatred for sin. Let them walk the narrow road with joy, bearing the lighter load of Your yoke.
I ask this, Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord. Amen.
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