>”Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:
But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” Matt 5:27-28
“But let me say a word about the subtlety of sin. Sin is this terrible thing which so deludes and fools us as to make us feel quite happy and contented so long as we have not committed the act. ‘Yes’, I say, ‘I was tempted, but thank God I did not fall.’ That is all right up to a point, so long as I am not too content with that. If I am merely satisfied with the fact that I did not do the thing, I am all wrong. I ought to go on and ask: ‘But why did I want to do it?’ That is where the subtlety of sin comes in. It affects the whole constitution of man. It is not merely something in the animal part of our nature; it is in our mind and outlook, and it makes us think corruptly in that manner. Then think of the clever way in which it insinuates itself into the mind, and the terrible way in which we are guilty of sinning with the mind. There are highly respectable men and women who would never dream of committing an act of adultery, but look at the way in which they enjoy sinning in the mind and in the imagination. We are dealing with practical matters, we are dealing with life as it is. This is what I mean. You have never been guilty of adultery? All right. Would you then answer me this simple question. Why do you read all the details of divorce cases in the newspapers? Why do you do it? Why is it essential that you should read right through these reports? What is your interest? It is not a legal interest, is it? or a social one? What is it? There is only one answer: you are enjoying it. You would not dream of doing these things yourself, but you are doing them by proxy. You are sinning in your heart and mind and in your imagination, and you are therefore guilty of adultery. That is what Christ says. How subtle this awful, terrible thing is! How often do men sin by reading novels and biographies. You read the reviews of a book and find that it contains something about a man’s misconduct or behavior, and you buy it. We pretend we have a general philosophical interest in life, and that we are sociologists reading out of pure interest. No, no; it is because we love the thing; we like it. It is sin in the heart; sin in the mind!” ~Martyn Lloyd Jones