So which is the greater sin, adding to God’s words or wanting a particular available virgin, real bad?
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Gentlemen if you can gain a correct perspective on this issue it will free you from a life of bondage and shame that has been placed upon you due to the incorrect teachings about this subject. The church standard about this issue is completely impossible to keep and is a tool used to keep men walking through life defeated and emasculated. Study this subject out and remove your cultural bias. You will be glad you did.
The second one is not a sin and is simply healthy attraction...
Really? I would love to see a verse to back that one up.
Colossians 3:5 5Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
Here is one saying Lust is always bad just saying.
You would probably be better off making the argument of what defines lust than trying to say it isn't always a bad thing.
If you can do it safely, please keep posting comments such as these...
Don’t covet your neighbors wife.
It don’t say nuttin about coveting his daughter
Gold! Absolute GOLD!!!
My husband lusts after me all the time, and I love it.
You seem to be reading that verse through a modern christian filter.
By the law comes the knowledge of sin. That which is sinful is clearly spelled out in Torah. That is the standard by which we determine what sin is.
I've heard this put forth as an argument against polygyny. Because to look at another woman once you're married is then 'lust' and 'greed' and definitely 'sexual immorality'. @Asforme&myhouse is right, we do have to remove our filters to read the bible, as hard as that is, and not just go off what we 'think' it means or what the church has taught us our whole lives.
this is the Greek definition of the word translated to lust in the new testament. epiqumew-set the heart upon, i.e. long for desire, covet, would fain, lust (after).
I don't think I am and I am still waiting for the verse that says lust is a good thing.
1 Timothy 3:1 NASB
[1] It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do.
That word desire is the same Greek word translated as lust elsewhere...
Ok fine.
Romans 7:7 KJV
[7] What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
1 Corinthians 12:31 KJV
[31] But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.
1 Corinthians 14:39 KJV
[39] Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues.
Bad things are bad to desire, other people’s things are bad to desire, good things are good to desire.
Interesting side note, in the Law if a man seduced and slept with a virgin he had to take her as his wife, but there was no sin offering required. So if a dude could lust after a virgin so much he slept with her and it wasn’t a sin, how could thinking about it be a sin?
My young friend, @James A, I think you opened up a can of worms, but I'm glad we're talking about it.
Funny you should use the word 'battle.' There is an absolutely horrible pair of books out there called Every Man's Battle and Every Young Man's Battle. The Adversary, through the Church, has used these books and their ilk to chain men to the death train that is the marriage between feminism and sex-negative religious fundamentalism. Those books treat women's sensuality as if it's a poison, teaching men to literally bounce their eyes away from good-looking women.
If calling a woman “hot” is objectifying her, then my wife likes it when I objectify her
As far as “objectification” goes, i think that’s kind of a made up thing, that feminists came up with to make a men feel bad for being excited when they see a beautiful woman.
I could actually quote more than a dozen of the comments made above to demonstrate the gold that has been shared with you, James. I was particularly heartened by what @Asforme&myhouse and his clearly beautiful wife articulated about the appropriateness of desirability both within and outside of a marriage.
@Pacman and others point toward what I see as the key distinctions in this discussion. Our Heavenly Father does not need for us to fail to recognize the levels of beauty He very purposefully created for us to inspire us to not only appreciation His Creation but behave in a way that demonstrates that we see that Creation as worthy of reproducing ourselves to continue appreciating. We were made to recognize and desire beauty in our lives, and I would suggest that men are designed very purposefully to most thoroughly recognize and desire female beauty.
Lust is a word that the Adversary and especially the Roman Church has used to fog our minds. That has been done by persuading us to think of lust as generally something related to sex, because the Adversary wants us to consider sex and everything related to it to be depraved. Paul most frequently referenced lust, though, in the context of admonishing us not to lust for approval from the world (as opposed to from God). If we take the charged nature of the word 'lust' out of the equation, though, we are left with this important distinction: we are designed to desire; where it becomes sinful and destructive is when we covet, which is taking the beauty of desire and adding in the poison of conspiring to take something that belongs to another.
I will pray for you, my brother James, that you will see this truth, because God intended for you to be inspired by outward beauty to be willing to spend the time necessary to discover whether the additional inner beauty of a woman qualifies her as a potential mate for you. Way too many people have made the mistake of thinking that, to prove themselves proper pious Christians, they have to marry someone they don't think is hot in order to prove to God that their hearts are in the right place.
Why would a Father who loves us want us to spend the rest of our lives with women who don't inspire gut-wrenching steamy passion?
This word translated "lust" is also translated "passion" in quite a few other translations of this verse. Would the same argument be made against having passion? I think the problem is the modern church's misunderstanding and teaching of what lust is. I take it not so much as "blanket sexual desire" as it is "desire (in any way/shape/form) of something that belongs to another".
I think I might be losing some people with what I am saying so let me back up. I am not saying you if you look at a hot chick and go man she is fly that you are in the wrong. What i am saying is that the Bible is pretty clear that there is a line that you can cross that becomes lust. Lust of the eyes which is one of the big 3 that will wreck you seems to be the one we are talking about right now. If you fall victim to this lust you will begin to make very bad decisions. Solomon warns his son's of it numerous times in Proverbs. When I was in the military i saw it all the time. I had a buddy who was married for 2 and a half weeks to a girl he only new for 3 days before they were wed. Was she hot? Most definitely but this chick was a new level of crazy. Any ways i think we can all agree it isn't wise to make huge impacting decisions for your family based on how attractive you find a chick. When the times get tough there has to be something more. Even Jacob at the end said bury me next to Leah.