Jesus Never Said This About Lust… (Matthew 5:28 Explained)
Have you been told that merely glancing at a beautiful woman is adultery? This study takes Matthew 5:28 back to its context — the Greek epithymeō, the word gunē (“wife”), and the Torah’s definition of adultery — to show Yeshua was forbidding coveting another man’s wife.
“If you even look at a woman with lust, you’ve already committed adultery in your heart” is one of the most quoted verses in modern Christianity — and, this video argues, one of the most misread. Read in its own context, with the Greek and the Torah it draws from, Matthew 5:28 is not a condemnation of noticing beauty or desiring marriage. It is Yeshua upholding the command against coveting another man’s wife.
What this video covers
- The verse before it (Matthew 5:27) quotes the Torah — “You shall not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14) — and Leviticus 20:10 defines adultery as involving a married woman.
- The Greek for “lust” is epithymeō, the same word Yeshua uses in Luke 22:15 (“I have earnestly desired”) and the Septuagint uses for “you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife” (Exodus 20:17) — desire or coveting, not automatic sexual sin.
- The word for “woman,” gunē, is the same word rendered “wife” a few verses later in the divorce passage (Matthew 5:31) — so a consistent reading is “whoever looks upon a man’s wife with covetous desire.”
- Why the warning in verse 29 (“tear out your right eye”) makes no sense if it condemns desiring a woman a man could lawfully marry — but fits as a warning against coveting another man’s wife.
- How this misreading has been weaponized against men, convincing them they are condemned from puberty — which, the video warns, makes actual sin easier, not harder.
- Joseph in Genesis 39 as the contrast: he knew adultery was lying with another man’s wife, and refused — “How then could I do this great evil and sin against God?”
Scriptures examined
- Matthew 5:27–29, 31 — the command, “lust,” and “tear out your eye”
- Exodus 20:14, 17 — “do not commit adultery”; “do not covet… your neighbor’s wife”
- Leviticus 20:10 — adultery defined by a married woman
- Luke 22:15 — epithymeō used of righteous desire
- Genesis 39 — Joseph and Potiphar’s wife
- Proverbs 6:23–29 — the commandment as a lamp guarding against the adulteress
Why it matters
Getting the definition of adultery wrong turns a verse meant to protect men into a burden that crushes them — the very kind of heavy load Yeshua charged the Pharisees with binding on people. Read rightly, Matthew 5:28 steers God-given desire rather than condemning it. For the written breakdown, see Jesus, Lust, and Adultery in Matthew 5:28. For the fuller groundwork, see the companion teaching, What Is Adultery, Biblically?
