Eph. 3:20 said:
Can you prove it Biblically? Let's make sure we have the proper definition of the word before we start to dictate what is and isn't sinful behaviour...
The word used as lust "epithumeo" (Strongs #1937) is the exact same word used in Rom. 7:7, 13:9, "...for the Law said, thou shall not covet." That is what Christ was trying to teach us. It is wrong to put your "fixation" on a object, person or whatever and "desire" to have that "thing" for our own. It is "to strongly desire to have what belongs to someone else..." (pg. 291. 25.20, The Greek-English Lexicon of the NT based on Semantic Domains).
We know in most cases lust has a very bad connotation, but unless we know more, we won't know exactly what God wants us to avoid.
Notice these passages...
"If you see a beautiful woman and desire her..." Duet. 21:11. Obviously this is a man who has seen a woman physical beauty and desires to have her and it is approved and provided for in His law. The question is what makes this different from lust of the eyes? Why is one condemned but the other approved? What about the fact that many of the OT saints looked upon a beautiful unmarried woman and desired to have her as his second or third wife . All of this occurred with God's approval hundreds if not thousands of times in the OT. It's obvious that this does not constitute "lust of the eyes" or "committing adultery in one's heart." It should be apparent that "lust of the eyes" is something more than looking with sexual appreciation.
Human nature is such that every "normal" male is sexually attracted to a pretty woman. He doesn't have to work into it, it is simply there. It is automatic for a man to delight in the sight of a beautiful woman and to have a strong sense of her sexuality. It is all part of one package. It is part of the attraction of the sexes for each other. For a woman to look at a man and find him sexually attractive is as normal as for a man to look the same way at a woman. It is the way God made people. Surely no one thinks that a single man is attracted to and motivated to marry a woman without any thought of sexuality! Such thoughts and desires are a strong part of courtship for both sexes. When a single man looks at a beautiful woman and has sexual thoughts about her and asks her for a date, he has not sinned. Nor has a woman sinned who delights in the sight of a handsome and sexually appealing man.
Next, we must be honest with the words Jesus used and avoid assigning them meanings that are not valid according to their true definition. As stated above, the word "lust" cannot be properly defined as having sexual attraction to. The word means "desire to posses as one's own," in a covetous way. It is a desire to steal what belongs to another. Simple sexual desire of a man for a woman is not invalid and cannot be made to fit under the definition of "lust." To "lust after" someone or something is to have a strong desire to take what belongs to another. Just as hate is the motivation behind murder, so "lust" or "covetousness" is the motivation behind theft. The Septuigant uses the same Greek word for "covet" in the commandement, "Thou shalt not covet your neighbor's wife..."(Ex. 20:17) as it does for the word "lust' in this passage.
It's we moderns who place inaccurate definitions on words of antiquity to try to seperate them to fit into some predifined category. This is not directed at you personally, for I was taught the same thing in seminary. It wasn't until I started to research some of these terms and meanings on my own, that I found that they had different meanings than what we have been led to believe.
Just as the OT commandment tells us that we are not to covet our neighbor's house, wife, property etc...Jesus tells us the same thing. We can admire those things, even appreciate their beauty (sexually or otherwise just like the Shulamite incident, Song of Solomon), but we are not to place upon them that "fixation" to the point that we long for that "thing" that the other person has. To even "desire" to have my neighbor's wife as my own constitutes adultery in the Matt. passage.
So Moses forbade men to "covet your neighbor's wife, or your neighbor's house..." (Ex. 20:17). Lust is not inherently sexual: it is a desire to possess the property of another person. If that covetous quality, the desire to steal- is not there, it is not "lust." As quoted from Erdman's Bible Dictionary, "It can represent any strong desire, including those that are sinful and those that are not." Apart from the desire to steal, it is simply a strong desire, and that is not sinful.
Eph.
Ok..So obviously you have been doing your research. Which is great...'cos so have I..and it is an interesting topic to say the least. But complicated...First off...I do believe it is wrong to imagine scenarios of sexual intent with another person
outside of marriage. But then again...imagining having sex within marriage can be just as harmful. It's hard to know when to stop. It's human nature. We will keep wanting more and more.
And what if it took hold so much..that all you though about the particular female was sexual innuendo's? Then of course there would be a problem.
So yeh...lust...desire...it all falls under one..I think we can safely say that it's not as tough as you're making it out to be. Lust is lust. So first we'll go with this:
"Do not lust after her beauty in you heart,
Nor let her allure you with her eyelids."
Proverbs 7:25
Why? Because we want to stay away from temptation lest we're led into it.
In 2 Samuel 11:2 we read that David saw Bathsheba bathing.
Bathsheba was naked, but she was not naked for sexual purposes. What she did was not done to entice anyone. She was merely bathing. Yet the sight of her naked body led to lust and a tragic series of terrible sins by David.
Repeatedly, the Bible warns against lust.
I John 2:16-17, NIV. "For everything in the worldthe cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and doescomes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever."
Many times we have the attitude of "If God gave me this body, shouldn't I be able to enjoy it?" First of all, we have to remember that sex is God's invention. He is the mastermind behind it. This beautiful expression of love was created out of God's own heart as a gift to be experienced
between a husband and wife. As we've already said, it is only in marriage that this expression of intimacy can be fully enjoyed to the degree and depth for which it was created.
The more beautiful and unique something is (like sexual intercourse), the more power it holds over our lives, either as a good or bad influence. That is why it is so easy for the devil to corrupt the most precious of God's gifts.
God created sex so that we could become one with our husband or wife. Masturbation is a selfish act where we take advantage of and abuse God's gift
God cares about what we do with our bodies, in public or in private, and He doesn't want us to abuse ourselves in any way.
Did you know that in older dictionaries the definition of the word masturbation is "self-abuse"? And if you were to look in a current dictionary under the word self-abuse, the word "masturbation" would be the second definition given.
When masturbating, you are defiling your mind with obscene thoughts and then defiling your body by using it to act out those thoughts. To "defile" something means "to make unclean, to make impure." Matthew 15:19-20a reads, "For out of the heart proceed
evil thoughts, murders,
adulteries,
fornications ...these are the things which defile a man."
And I believe that we all already know in our hearts that masturbating is wrong. When you engage in this activity, you soon after feel a sense of guilt and shame. This activity does not lift you up spiritually. It brings you down. God did not create our sexual organs so that we could fantasize and have sex by ourselves. God created sexual pleasure as something to be shared and experienced between two people -- a husband and a wife.
Now, you might be thinking, "Well, isn't it still better to touch than to commit fornication?" Maybe in your mind you feel that it is better to touch because at least you are the only one involved. Maybe you believe that it is the "lesser" of two evils.
Well, I don't believe that our loving, holy, all-powerful God wants us to be in situations where we have to choose any evil, whether it be "lesser" or "greater." God doesn't want you to be involved with sin at all!
First of all, masturbation will not truly relieve the sexual pressure that you may feel. It may for a short moment, but in the long run it only creates a deeper desire and capacity for sex, which will lead to more masturbation and, ultimately, the desire for sexual intercourse.
James 1:14-15 tells us, "Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." This verse is telling us that all sin begins with a thought, but that when we give in to the thought and act out the sin, we will sink deeper and deeper into sin. Sin always takes you farther than you wanted to go and keeps you longer than you wanted to stay.
When we fantasize and touch, we open our hearts and minds up to strange and perverse thoughts and possibilities. We are giving the devil an open invitation to take residence in our beings. If we do not deal with our evil thoughts, they will take root in our heart. It is for this reason that God is so concerned with our thought life. Jesus came not only to deliver us from our "outward" sins, but also from wickedness that begins in the heart.
Yes, it is very much OK for a man to be attracted to a woman. Yet, attraction is not lust! Remember also Job 31:1 and Matthew 5:28.
Thanks for your time.
sorry if it's too long!