Lust Gone Wild

Scripture: Galatians 5.16-24; Matthew 5.1-8


C.S. Lewis drew a short parable to make a point about sex:

Now suppose you came to a country where you could fill a theatre by simply bringing a covered plate on to the stage and then slowly lifting the cover so as to let every one see, just before the lights went out, that it contained a mutton chop or a bit of bacon, would you not think that in that country something had gone wrong with the appetite for food? And would not anyone who had grown up in a different world think there was something equally queer about the state of the sex instinct among us?

If a chief part of God’s glory in us is that we are wonderfully made for each other in holy relationship, then a chief part of the work of the devil is to distort our sexual appetite, to replace loving intimacy with lust. As we will see when we look at the scripture, lust is not a new problem.

The Bible mentions pornography in the Old Testament. The prophet Ezekiel spoke out against the pornography in Jerusalem in his time. To say things got worse in the New Testament time and Roman Rule is an understatement. Demosthenes of Rome wrote,

“We keep mistresses for pleasure, concubines for the day-to-day needs of the body, but we have wives in order to produce children legitimately and to have a trustworthy guardian of our homes.”

This was not a minority opinion or a weird aberration, but was the norm for Roman society. Remember folks, Paul was certainly familiar with the world and lives of the people among whom he was preaching and teaching. Corinth in particular was known for its brothels and baths and general promiscuity. “Paul was very conscious of the fact that it is not easy to live the Christian life. Human nature being what it is, there is conflict between what God wants in us and what our “flesh” often wants. Paul was sympathetic to the believers struggles with temptation, but he was also uncompromising in calling sexual immorality serious sin.

Paul would not allow followers of Christ to be comfortable with the sins of their past lives and the contemporary culture around them.

And in fact it’s been said that chastity was the one completely new virtue that Christianity introduced to the pagan world.

To the Galatians Paul gives a list of evil things to be avoided and a list of good things to embrace. He is writing in a way that was widely accepted and recognized in those times. Today, the only place I see lists of good and bad behaviors are on the walls of my sons classrooms at school, lists of what is acceptable behavior and what is not.
Ironically, we adults don’t think we need lists anymore. When’s the last time you saw the Ten Commandments posted somewhere, even in a church? And yet my morning newspaper reminds me there are many who haven’t learned “Thou shalt not kill.”

Three of the evil deeds Paul lists concern sexual immorality – fornication, licentiousness, and impurity. These three pretty much cover the gamut. They are not the only kinds of sin nor are they greater evils than pride, jealousy, idolatry or angry quarrels – together they are listed as things warned against:

“I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Verse 21b

Paul teaches that the flesh is at war with the spirit in every human being. Some translations even read “the lust of the flesh.” What is the flesh? It is our sinful nature. It is “the old man” that we are to rid of when we become new creations in Christ. Paul recognizes that the ridding of the old person does not happen instantaneously in regards to our desires and behaviors, but happens as we are cede control to the Spirit of God.

“Walk by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh.” Verse 16

To walk is an ongoing progressive activity – it takes time but you do, in fact, get somewhere. When you invest in the flesh you get the consequences of sin in return. When you invest yourself in the things of God, you get leading and you bear the fruit of God’s presence in your life.

Paul makes it clear that overcoming these sins is the Spirit’s work in us, not what we ourselves can accomplish on our own if only we just try hard enough.


We have not invented lust in modern times, but perhaps we have, with our technology and wealth, perfected it.

What would say, a man of the mid-20th century even, like C.S. Lewis, say about the television shows that today routinely air at 8 or 9 pm every day and the amount of sexual innuendo and skin that is flaunted?

What would Lewis say about Internet pornography?

I think he would say it’s just the latest symptom of a sickness in society and in ourselves. I saw in the week leading up to the Super Bowl that a pregnant woman put her stomach up for bid on the Internet as advertising space. She did this because she wanted badly to go see her Chicago Bears in the Super Bowl. In exchange for Super Bowl tickets a company called U.Bid “rented” her belly to advertise their web site. It was a womb site for a web site. It wasn’t mentioned if the contents of the womb were for sale as well. But it is another example that persons have simply become objects.

Newsweek’s cover story this week was dedicated to “Girls Gone Wild.” The article expressed the general feeling or concern that there has been a general coarsening of the culture in regards to sexuality. If Newsweek senses this, maybe the Church should too.

What can we do? We should take a shower, if you will, from the onslaught of sex-soaked media that we and our kids daily face. What I mean is, take the practical steps of removing the things from your life that you have control over.

Get rid of magazines that are dedicated to celebrity culture
Monitor the television you and your family are watching
Don’t rent or pay for movies that will degrade you with sex or violence
Put blocks on your Internet access to any websites that might have questionable material
When looking at real people, see them that way, not just as objects


Jesus put it this way – If your eye causes you stumble, pluck it out.

Take these practical steps and then move on to the more important issue: Why is lust such a big problem for me? Like any sin, it is a symptom of a deeper void. It’s another idol trying to pretend to the throne of our hearts. We should ask ourselves why we set the idol on the mantelpiece to begin with.

G.K. Chesterton once commented that “every man who knocks on the door of a brothel is looking for God.”

He’s right. It’s a spiritual problem that will not be fixed without the help of the Holy Spirit. “Live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” Look yourself in the eye and know that God can help you. If you’re in a relationship look your wife or your girlfriend, your husband or your boyfriend in the eye and know that God has already given you something better than the temptation and the sin.