Do you miss the entire point of Jesus’ teaching on adultery in the heart by dwelling on the where of adultery and not on the who? Read the verse again. Spot where you misread it.
“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.”
Matthew 5:27-28
Jesus says, “Whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery WITH HER in his heart.” Where the adultery takes place is immaterial. What is material is with whom the adultery takes place. Adultery, after all, requires two people. You are one of them. The other person is the woman you lust after. When you watch pornography and lust after a woman, you commit adultery with that woman. This is what Jesus is saying. Where this adultery takes place doesn’t matter.
You can’t escape this teaching by arguing with Jesus that you simply looked. You can’t escape the severity of this truth by deluding yourself that you didn’t have physical sex with anyone except yourself. Your wife doesn’t care about this distinction, believe me. The point that Jesus is making is not simply that lust is adultery in the heart. His point is that, when you lust after a woman with your eyes, when you watch pornography, you commit adultery with a person, not an abstraction. You commit adultery with someone in particular, a woman you can describe in intimate detail. Where this happens—in your heart or at a hotel—is irrelevant.
Will you commit adultery today? This is not a trick question.
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