Jesus' View of Adultery - Renewing Your Mind

Podcast Summary: "Jesus’ View of Adultery"

Podcast: Renewing Your Mind
Host: Ligonier Ministries (Message by R.C. Sproul)
Episode Date: September 28, 2025

Main Theme

This episode delves into Jesus’ teachings on adultery from the Sermon on the Mount, as outlined in Matthew 5:27–30. R.C. Sproul explores how Jesus radically redefined the sin of adultery, emphasizing not merely physical acts, but the intentions and desires of the heart. The episode encourages Christians to examine their lives in light of Christ’s high moral standard and discusses practical steps for pursuing personal sanctity in a permissive culture.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Contrast Between Jesus’ Teaching and Tradition

Textual Foundation (01:41):
R.C. Sproul begins by reading Matthew 5:27–30, where Jesus expands the commandment against adultery to include even lustful thoughts.

“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.” — R.C. Sproul (01:41)
Jesus refutes the traditional, outward interpretation of the law and asserts his divine authority to pronounce its true meaning:

“The pronouncement that Jesus makes here in Matthew 5 is nothing less than the pronouncement of God himself.” — R.C. Sproul (04:17)

2. Cultural Shift and the 'Moral Revolution'

Sproul draws parallels between the sexual revolution of the 1960s and today’s “virtually godless society,” noting how past inhibitions—shame, fear of disease, unwanted pregnancy—have largely vanished.

“What is left to keep you from being freely active in premarital sex? …The only thing I can think of is that it is an offense against the holiness of God.” — R.C. Sproul (07:41)
He critiques the contemporary dismissal of God’s authority in favor of cultural trends:

“God does not rule by referendum. He doesn't care what the social inclinations are in your culture. His word is law.” — R.C. Sproul (10:46)

3. Pervasiveness of Temptation and Pornography

Sproul highlights the unique challenges of the modern era, particularly the barrage of erotic stimuli and the epidemic of pornography—even within the church:

“I don't think there's ever been a time in the history of Western culture when people have been more radically bombarded with erotic stimuli than they have in this generation.” — R.C. Sproul (12:04)
He emphasizes the need for radical solutions to radical problems, referencing Jesus’ instructions to pluck out the offending eye or cut off the offending hand (Matthew 5:29–30).

4. Radical Metaphors and Practical Holiness

Jesus’ language is hyperbolic, not literal (“pluck it out and cast it from you”), but it underscores the need for drastic action in pursuing chastity.

“To preserve your chastity is so important that we must do whatever it takes to accomplish it.” — R.C. Sproul (17:11)
Sproul urges listeners addicted to pornography to take tangible, even drastic steps, like removing computers if necessary:

“What's more important, your soul or your computer? Your sanctity or your erotica? Because you can't have both.” — R.C. Sproul (18:36)
The metaphors of Odysseus tying himself to the mast (16:58) and Luther’s warning about “birds nesting in your hair” (21:50) drive home the personal responsibility to combat lustful thoughts.

5. Personal Stories and Cultural Jadedness

Sproul recounts his experiences speaking at Christian colleges, observing apathy and spiritual numbness regarding matters of sexuality:

“I said, well, speaking of sexual intercourse, every single head in that chapel snapped to attention… We're jaded, folks. We're really jaded. Our consciences have been seared.” — R.C. Sproul (20:16)

6. Encouragement and Gospel Hope

The message closes with an encouragement: the ethic of chastity is a visible proof of the power of the gospel, and forgiveness is available through Christ.

“If the Word of God reveals that you have been in sin, get it cleansed… If you're not married and you're no longer a virgin, you can become a virgin again in the sight of God. Because when he forgives us our sins, he makes us clean. Hear the Word of Christ.” — R.C. Sproul (23:55)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Divine Authority:

“If God said it, it's settled whether you believe it or don't believe it.” — R.C. Sproul (10:36)
On Lust and Responsibility:

“He [Luther] said, 'I can't help it if birds fly around my head, but I can keep them from nesting in my hair.'” — R.C. Sproul (21:55)
On Radical Solutions:

“Sometimes that's what it takes, folks. We have to tie ourselves to the mast.” — R.C. Sproul (16:58)
On Gospel Cleansing:

“When he forgives us our sins, he makes us clean. Hear the Word of Christ.” — R.C. Sproul (24:20)

Timestamps of Important Segments

Defense of Christian Chastity by Early Apologists: [00:00]
Introduction and Reading of Matthew 5:27–30: [01:41]
Jesus’ Authority and Modern Rebellion: [04:17] — [10:46]
Sexual Revolution’s Impact on Morals: [07:41]
Rise and Effects of Pornography: [12:04]
Jesus’ Radical Call to Purity/Hyperbolic Language: [17:11]
Practical Drastic Measures: [18:36], [16:58] (Odysseus metaphor)
Luther’s Wisdom on Temptation: [21:55]
Forgiveness and Spiritual Restoration: [23:55]

Tone and Language

R.C. Sproul’s tone is urgent, direct, and pastoral—rooted in biblical authority, yet compassionate toward those struggling. He speaks plainly about cultural realities, using historical references, personal anecdotes, and vivid metaphors to connect doctrine with daily life.

Conclusion

This episode compellingly argues that Jesus’ ethical demands are not diminished by cultural change, but remain radically centered on the holiness and authority of God. The call to chastity and purity, while countercultural, is not rooted in social taboo but in reverence for God’s law—a challenge every believer must take seriously, and for which the gospel offers both the standard and the power for genuine transformation.

Transcript

A (0:00)

In the second century, the apologist Justin Martyr, in defending Christian truth claims, he pointed to the Christian ethic of chastity as proof of the power of the Gospel. No apologist in his right mind today would ever ask the critics of Christianity to examine our sexual behavior as proof of the Gospel.

B (0:33)

Chastity. That's not a word we hear often these days. Sexual deviance is celebrated and it marches in our streets. Yet Jesus standard was high. Whoever looks at a woman to lust for her, he said, 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. What did Jesus mean? Well, I'm glad you're joining us to find out on this Sunday edition of Renewing your mind. Today, we're continuing a short three part series from the Sermon on the Mount as recorded in Matthew's Gospel. And that's why when you give a gift today in support of renewing your mind, at renewingyourmind.org, we'll send you R.C. sproul's commentary on Matthew, which includes his insights from his study in preparation for the sermon you'll hear today. But be quick, as this offer ends at midnight. Well, here's R.C. sproul in Matthew, chapter five, beginning in verse 27 on Jesus view of adultery.

A (1:41)

You have heard that it was said to those of old, 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. Just as he did with respect to the Old Testament prohibition against murder, Jesus notes a contrast between the tradition of the rabbis and his own understanding of the law. Just as he expounded the prohibition against murder to contain within it elliptically the prohibition against anything that harms, damages, or wounds our neighbor. So at this point, Jesus also shows that the command against adultery includes within it every aspect that is part of the broader complex of this particular sin. Now again he starts out by contrasting the views of tradition with his own saying. You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not commit adultery. But that is, you've heard the tradition you've heard the teaching of the authorities of antiquity. You know what they have said. But I say to you now, before we look at what Jesus says, let me remind you of the authority by which he says it, that elsewhere our Lord declares, all authority on heaven and earth has been given to me. I speak nothing on my own authority, but rather on the authority of the one who has sent me. So the pronouncement that Jesus makes here in Matthew 5 is nothing less than the pronouncement of God himself. Now, why do I stress that? Because we are living in a world, in an age where God's opinion is considered merely that, a solitary opinion that is cancelled out by a majority report that contradicts his opinion. And so we have gone through a crisis in our culture, what has been called a moral revolution and has been linked to a decade of the 60s in the 20th century in which American culture witnessed what was then called the sexual revolution. And there were many factors involved in that particular cultural revolution. I was teaching colleges and universities during the decade of 60s. I remember teaching college students. And we got to the Book of Corinthians, and I talked about the biblical sex ethic to these young people. I reminded them that their parents had told them that they were to be chaste and that they were to practice abstinence. And the reasons they had been given was that if they were involved in premarital sex, that they were exposing themselves to venereal disease or an unwanted pregnancy or a cultural rejection, for shame. And I said to those students, you know and I know that things have changed, that the inhibiting factor of fear of sexual diseases, this was before aids, of course, has been pretty much been set aside by the advent of effective medical treatments and antibiotics and so on. You also know now that you can prevent your unwanted pregnancy by various sophisticated forms of birth control. And if the event that you do become pregnant with an unwanted pregnancy, even at that time, we're rushing forward to that moment where it will be perfectly legal and acceptable culturally, for you to end that pregnancy with abortion. And of course, all of you know that the shame of sexual activity among unmarried people is no longer the social scandal and taboo that it once was. So what is left? What is left to keep you from being freely active in premarital sex? I said, the only thing I can think of is that it is an offense against the holiness of God and that the Lord God, omnipotent, who has the eternal authority to command your obedience, prohibits this behavior. It was like a lightning bolt hit that Classroom. I had a busy schedule up to that point of counseling with students. My counseling load multiplied by a factor of 10. I felt like I was involved in a Christian college where it seemed like every student in the school was actively involved in this sin. The sexuality report of mainline denominations said, it's okay. Dr. Kinsey said it was okay. But Jesus said, but I say to you, it's not okay. You've heard me say many times that I see that bumper sticker. I still see it. God said it, I believe it. That settles it. I want to take a magic Marker and cut out the middle phrase. Because if God said it, it's settled whether you believe it or don't believe it. Because God does not rule by referendum. He doesn't care what the social inclinations are in your culture. His word is law. Now I want to say something that we need to understand as Christians living in a virtually godless society. I don't think there's ever been a time in the history of Western culture when people have been more radically bombarded with erotic stimuli than they have in this generation. Where can you go in your culture and not be exposed to intense, suggestive, sexual erotic literature and images? You know what it's like in Hollywood movies. You know what it's like on broadcast television. You know what it's like in the American novel. And if you own a computer, you know what it's like in the world of computers. The church has never had to deal with the problem of addiction to pornography among men that is pervasive and epidemic now, not just in the secular culture in the church. But this is too much of my insight. I want us to look at what Jesus says. But I say to you, whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Oh, I've had guys say to me, hey, I read what Jesus said. I've had the lust, so I might as well keep going. I've already committed adultery. And this goes back to what we were talking about last week, that Jesus is not saying it is just as evil to lust as it is actually to commit adultery. But what he is saying is that even if you have refrained from actual adultery does not mean you have fulfilled the full dimension of God's law. He said, I say to you, whoever looks at a woman has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Now here's where he gets radical. 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. Why does Jesus focus here on the offending eye? Because he understands how adultery begins. It usually begins with a glance, with a look. Remember the story of David in the Old Testament, this man who was after God's own heart? David did not sit in his palace and ask his generals to go out and give him a list of the most beautiful and seductive women in the kingdom so that he could go out and be involved with them. No, he didn't plan anything like that. Instead, he just happened to be walking outside on his roof, and he looked over. In the next building, he sees Bathsheba nude. And from the look came the lust. From the lust came the adultery. That's why the visual dimension of graphic erotic stimulation is so crucial. Every marketer in America understands that sex sells. That's why the seductive women are used as props to sell everything from automobiles to Eskimo Pies. It works. That's why so much attention is given to erotic clothing. And again, visual images on television and in the movies. And there's nowhere where this is more prevalent than on the Internet. What does Jesus say about it? He says, we have a problem here. It's a radical problem that will require a radical solution. If your right eye offends you, get rid of it. Pluck it out. Now, what person chooses to make themselves blind? What person is so committed to remain chaste that to prevent temptation will inflict upon themselves blindness in one eye? Now, beloved, Jesus is speaking hyperbolically here. He's not saying if you have a lustful look, it's time to have eye surgery. No, what he's saying is that to preserve your chastity is so important that we must do whatever it takes to accomplish it. The story of Odysseus on his way home from Troy, traveling in his ship between the tempting saurons, has himself lashed to the mast lest he veer off course and sail his ship into ruin. Sometimes that's what it takes, folks. We have to tie ourselves to the mast. If you are a man or a woman. But chiefly if you're a man and you are addicted to pornography, let me make a suggestion that you may think is absurd. Either find a way to keep that stuff off your computer. And if you can't put the computer in the garbage, don't tell me that you cannot live in the 21st century without a computer. I do it every day. I'm so blessed of God that I've never been tempted by computer pornography, because I Don't own a computer. And sometimes the benefits of technology have more peril than they have blessing. And what Jesus is saying here is for you to do an evaluation. An evaluation to look at your values. What's more important, your soul or your computer? Your sanctity or your erotica? Because you can't have both. Now, I know I'm not preaching, but meddling. I was speaking at a Christian College about 30 years ago that had required chapel. And this college had already been secularized, but still the requirement was in vogue, and I had to speak at chapel at one of these things. And I used to say, the worst assignment a preacher can ever have is to have to preach at a required chapel in a school, because the kids hate it. So I came in there, and when I started to speak, I looked out and I saw that three quarters of the students who were there had their heads looking down, were reading or writing their homework assignments. And they certainly weren't paying attention to me. I started to speak, and I was able to get about another quarter of them to pay attention, but it's still fully half of the congregation were not listening at all. And so I paused for a second and I said, well, speaking of sexual intercourse, every single head in that chapel snapped to attention. And I said, now that I have your attention, I'd like to continue. We're jaded, folks. We're really jaded. Our consciences have been seared. We have experienced what Jeremiah said to the people of Israel, that they had the foreheads of harlots. They had lost their capacity to blush. Luther said it this way. He was a man, every bitten man. And he said, I struggle with lust, he said, but I am responsible to deal with it. And he used this illustration. I can't help it if birds fly around my head, but I can keep them from nesting in my hair. I had another friend who was a minister, and he said whenever he saw a beautiful woman on the street, he would look at that woman and say, God bless her and forgive me. But we do have ways to combat this. And Jesus is saying, take every opportunity to keep your chastity before marriage and after marriage as well. It's better to go through life maimed than to have your soul be delivered into hell. One theologian said, it is better to limp into heaven than to leap into hell. Probably the hardest and most seductive enticement to overcome is the fact that everybody's doing it, is the fact that the culture no longer looks askance at this, is the fact that if you want to seek to be a Christian in an unchristian culture. You have to have the moral courage to march against the tide. But it's Jesus who calls us to this, and he has never rescinded that call. In the second century, the apologist Justin Martyr, in defending Christian truth claims against the critics of Christianity, addressed his defense to the Emperor Antoninus Pius, and part of his apology was a brilliant exposition of philosophy, a teaching of the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. And then in the midst of that, he said, if you really want to see visible proof of the truth of Christianity, observe our chastity. He pointed to the Christian ethic of chastity as proof of the power of the gospel. No apologist in his right mind today would ever ask the critics of Christianity to examine our sexual behavior as proof of the gospel. If the Word of God reveals that you have been in sin, get it cleansed, young women. If you're not married and you're no longer a virgin, you can become a virgin again in the sight of God. Because when he forgives us our sins, he makes us clean. Hear the Word of Christ.