Lust

Makestraightpaths.com examines the teachings of the religious group variously known as “the Family,” “The Family International,” the “Children of God,” or the “Family of Love,” and evaluates these teachings from a Christian perspective. This page is one in a series on the 'Law of Love' and the Family's sexual beliefs.

Lust

In general, scriptural warnings against the sin of sexual lust are ignored in the Family. The founder of the Family (Berg/Dad) declared that it was practically impossible to refrain from lusting after sexually attractive people, and therefore Jesus did not mean that lust or adultery were wrong but that these were examples of laws that were impossible to keep. Therefore (according to Berg/Dad), Jesus' law of love means that believers are allowed to break the commandments, or rather, the commandment against adultery does not apply to them. However, Berg/Dad severely misrepresented the Bible, for sexual lust is condemned in the New Testament, by Jesus himself, and by the apostles after the Holy Spirit came.

This page lists several Bible passages that speak about the sin of lust and the virtue of self-control. It also contains an excerpt from a Bible dictionary article on Lust.

Adultery in the heart

Matt 5:27-28
27 "You have heard that it was said, 'YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY'; 28 but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
NASU

These verses are examined in detail in the page entitled Jesus on Adultery.

Temptation and self-control

James 1:12-15
12 Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. 14 But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. 15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.
NASU

Lust entices people to sin. Lust is the means by which people are tempted to do sin, and the result of sin is death.

However, God has provided the means by which people may resist temptation: one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit is self-control.

Gal 5:22-23
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
NASU

Self-control was a virtue in the Old Testament. Job exercised self-control, and God praised him for his godliness.

Job 31:1 "I have made a covenant with my eyes; How then could I gaze at a virgin? NASU

Job spoke of the seriousness of the sin of lust.

Job 31:9-12
"If my heart has been enticed by a woman, Or I have lurked at my neighbor's doorway, 10 May my wife grind for another, And let others kneel down over her. 11 "For that would be a lustful crime; Moreover, it would be an iniquity punishable by judges. 12 "For it would be fire that consumes to Abaddon, And would uproot all my increase.
NASU

The divine nature

Peter spoke on lust and self-control. First, he stressed that God uses his power to grant believers all that they need to live a godly life.

2 Peter 1:3 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. NASU

Then, he said that believers may actually take on God's nature, once they have escaped the sin of the world.

2 Peter 1:4 For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. NASU

It is 'lust' ("evil desires" NIV) that corrupts the world. This 'lust' includes, although is not confined to sexual lust. Peter then urges his readers to exercise many virtues, including self-control.

2 Peter 1:5-7
5 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, 7 and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.
NASU

People without these virtues have forgotten that they were saved out of sin.

2 Peter 1:8-9
8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.
NASU

In other words, one application of Peter's message is that people who do not have the self-control to control their sexual lust are spiritually blind and are actually indulging in the same sins from which they were saved.

Keep seeking the things above

Paul exhorted his readers to kill their lust. First, he he told them to set their minds on Christ, and not on the things of the world.

Col 3:1-4
Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
NASU

Then, he advised them to consider themselves dead to sin.

Col 3:5-6
5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. 6 For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience
NASU

The NIV says:

Col 3:5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. NIV

Paul also warns that God will (eventually) punish those who stubbornly disobey.

The lust of the flesh

John said that believers are not to love the things of the world, including the "lust of the flesh" which includes, among other desires, sexual lust.

1 John 2:15-17
15 Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. 17 The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.
NASU

Lust

Excerpts from Baker's Evangelical Dictionary.

A strong craving or desire, often of a sexual nature. Though used relatively infrequently (twenty-nine times) in Scripture, a common theme can be seen running through its occurrences. The word is never used in a positive context; rather, it is always seen in a negative light, relating primarily either to a strong desire for sexual immorality or idolatrous worship... The language of Job is especially potent in regard to sexual immorality. Job is kept from looking "lustfully at a girl" because he knows that God's plan is "ruin for the wicked, disaster for those who do wrong."

In the New Testament, the word moves from referring primarily to idolatry to referring instead almost exclusively to sexual immorality. While the idea of idolatry is not completely absent, the primary intention is as a strong, inordinate desire for sexual relations. This sexual immorality, however, is not intended to represent actions alone since lust occurs first as a thought in the mind. The warning is to stop the lust before it moves into the realm of action. For instance, Jesus commands that a man is not to even look at a woman lustfully (i.e., with a desire to have sexual relations with her) because that is the same as committing the physical act of adultery (Matt 5:27-30); both are sin.

In each of the texts where Paul uses the word, it clearly is condemnatory of sexual immorality, both homosexual (Rom 1:26-27) and heterosexual. The command from Paul is to utterly destroy those inordinate desires that most often manifest themselves in the area of sexuality (cf. Col 3:5). Paul continues to warn that we must learn to control our bodies and be sanctified rather than giving in to our base desires, which is characteristic of those who do not know God (cf.1 Thess 4:3-5).

Paul is not alone in pointing out that the lustful lifestyle is characteristic of lost humanity. Peter concurs, and exhorts his readers to quit living as they did before they received Christ. He points out that lust is evidence of a pagan lifestyle (1 Peter 4:3). Also, according to Peter, lustful desires (not necessarily just sexual desires, but desiring anything more than one desires God) are a basic motivation inherent in human sinful nature (2 Peter 2:18).

It is obvious from John's writings that our lusts do not come from God but from the world. However, we are reminded by John that the world and its desires (lusts) pass away, whereas "the man who does the will of God lives forever" (1 John 2:16-17). Here we see that our lusts are in direct violation of God's perfect will, because they usually are misdirected, moving and leading us away from God to our own selfish desires.

Conclusion

The Bible is indisputably clear. Jesus said that sexual lust is a sin, and all the writers of the New Testament books are in complete agreement. Sexual lust is a sin.

The Family's teachings that lust and extra-marital sex may be justified are horribly wrong.

See also

Jesus on adultery

Christian Freedom

Galatians Five

The Law of love in the Epistles

The Law of Love in the Gospels

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