But *I* say unto you, that every one who looks upon a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
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Matthew 5:27-28 stands as one of the most searching words our Lord ever spoke. In it He does not soften the seventh commandment but presses it inward, until the hidden movements of the heart stand exposed before God. Three commentators help open up its force.
The heart, not merely the act
William Kelly sets the verse in its immediate context — the Lord has just dealt with violence (Matt. 5:21-26), and now turns to the other great form of human iniquity, corruption:
William KellyBut there is another thing besides violence: there is the corrupt element in the heart of man — the heart lusting for that which it has not. This is taken up in the next word of our Lord: "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."
Kelly notes that this is not a softening but an expansion — the law touched the deed; Christ reaches the source. He ties this together earlier in the same passage, where the Lord had already shown that the whole Sermon is addressed to a God "One who looks at and judges the feeling of the heart." The same principle that makes anger kin to murder makes the lustful look kin to adultery.
The order: thought, intention, action
An unsigned Bible Treasury reading on Matthew 5:27-48 puts the matter very practically:
The Lord is showing the searching character of the law; so, of some who might pride themselves on not having committed adultery, what does the Lord say, Who looks on the heart? All this shows how watchful we ought to be of our hearts, and to let the word search us through and through... Whilst, of course, every act of evil demands our condemnation of it in self-judgment, not less should we judge every evil intent in us, and the thought that gave rise to it. Thought, intention, action, that is the order here. Nothing but reality will meet the mind of God. Deep reality should characterize every one of us.
The Lord is pressing us to judge sin at its origin, not wait until it has flowered into deed. The look that lingers, the desire that is welcomed — these are where adultery is actually born, and these are where the believer is called to break it off.
Excision — no sparing of what ensnares
Kelly carries this through to the startling words that follow (vers. 29-30) about the right eye and the right hand:
That is, whatever in our walk, or in our ways, or in our service, whatever it might be that exposes a soul to the danger of yielding to these unholy feelings, should never be spared, but departed from at any cost. There must be the excision of everything that is hurtful to the soul; the members of the body, such as the eye desiring and the hand which would take, being used as showing the various ways in which the heart might be entangled. The cutting off of these members sets forth a heart thoroughly exercised in self-judgment; not prompted to excuse itself by saying that it had not actually committed the sin, but whatever exposed to it must be given up.
The Bible Treasury reading echoes the same note, adding that self-judgment and usefulness go together:
All this about the eye and the hand teaches us that nothing of however great value and usefulness should hinder us from self-judgment. A thorough judgment of self there must be, if we would be happy and useful. The more we judge ourselves the less disposed we shall be to judge others, though never winking at evil.
Notice the sobriety: it is not indiscriminate severity, nor morbid introspection, but a readiness to cut off whatever exposes the soul to corruption — however precious or useful that thing may be in itself.
A word Christ's people dare not set aside
A third voice, writing against what he calls "the doctrine of Balaam" — any teaching that would wink at moral uncleanness under a Christian profession — appeals directly to this verse as the unanswerable rebuke:
I would here quote the words of Christ in Matt. 5:27-28, marking that it is the doctrine of Balaam that sets those words aside, "Ye have heard that it was said to 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." The doctrine of Balaam may say that this is no harm, that it is quite innocent. But it need not be said to the faithful in Christ Jesus, "Do not hold such doctrine," yet it may be needful to say, "Have no fellowship with those who hold it."
The point is sharp: whenever looseness of eye or imagination is treated as trivial — "quite innocent" — Christ's own word is being quietly set aside. There is no room in the kingdom of heaven for a righteousness that is content to keep the outward act while harbouring the inward sin.
Drawing it together
Matthew 5:28 is not an impossible standard designed merely to drive us to despair; it is the King of heaven telling His disciples that the righteousness He requires is a righteousness of the heart. The law said, "Do not commit the act"; Christ says, "Do not cherish the desire" — for in God's sight the desire already is the thing. Hence three consequences flow out of the verse:
First, the believer learns where sin really lives. It is not fundamentally in the hand or the eye; those are only servants. It is in the heart that adultery, like murder, has its birth — and it is there that it must be judged.
Second, the believer learns to practise excision — to refuse, without bargaining, whatever exposes him to the kindling of lust, whether that thing be lawful in itself or not. The "right eye" and "right hand" are precisely the things we value most; the Lord names them because sparing them is exactly what self-judgment will not do.
Third, the believer learns to distrust any teaching, however refined, that treats impure looking as a small matter. Christ has spoken; the faithful heart bows and does not argue.
The verse therefore leaves us with nothing less than the perfect pattern of the Father Himself, and a call to walk in that light — not by outward conformity, but by hearts kept clean in the presence of a God "Who looks on the heart."