Where did you actually learn what sex means — from Scripture, or from the culture that arrived centuries later? What would it change to receive it as God's good gift?

Before Kent said anything about lust, he said something about sex, and the order matters enormously. God made us sexual beings in Genesis 1 and 2 — before we were sinners. Sex is God's idea. Sex is a good gift of God to humanity. That is not accidental and it is not incidental. Which means sex was not invented by Hollywood, or Madison Avenue, or Madonna, or Sabrina Carpenter, or any of the so-called influencers on social media. They are late arrivals to something God made and called good. That has to be established first, or everything Jesus says next gets heard wrong. "You shall not commit adultery" is not God being squeamish about a thing he regrets making. It is the maker of a good gift protecting it. Rules around something precious are not evidence that it is dirty. They are eviden

Have you been measuring yourself by what you have not done? What does Jesus' relocation of the problem to the heart change about that assessment?

Kent said this passage points first of all to the source of sin, and reached for the Westminster Shorter Catechism, question 14: what is sin? Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God. Any lack of conformity. Not just the act — the whole of what you are that fails to match. Which is exactly Jesus' move. "Everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart." He relocates the crime scene. You were relieved because you had not done the deed; he says the deed was the last stage of something that started much earlier and much further in. That is bad news if you were grading yourself on external compliance. It is oddly good news if you have ever wondered why keeping the rules never seemed to change you. Jesus go

What specific thing has access to you that you have been unwilling to cut off? What is stopping you?

"If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away." Nobody in church history has taken this as a literal instruction, and there is a clue in the text as to why: a blind man can still lust. Removing the eye does not remove the problem, and Jesus knows it. So what is he doing? He is using shocking language to convey the seriousness of the thing we treat casually. This is the register of a surgeon, not a scold — you cut because leaving it will kill you. And the practical application is real even if the literal one is not. What has access to you? What is on your phone, in your evenings, in the routines nobody sees? Jesus is asking whether you are willing to lose something you would rather keep in order to be free. Most of us want purity at no cost. He is saying it costs s

When you imagine giving up the thing you know needs to go, what does the loss feel like? How does it compare to what Jesus says is actually at stake?

Jesus repeats himself — eye, then hand. He does that when he wants something to land. "It is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell." Notice the arithmetic, because it is the whole argument. This is not a passage about self-hatred or mutilation. It is a passage about *comparative value*. Jesus is doing a cost-benefit analysis out loud, and he is saying the thing you are protecting is worth less than the thing you are risking. We do not believe that in the moment. In the moment the loss feels enormous and the risk feels theoretical. Kent's teacher Richard Pratt taught him that every passage has one original meaning, many legitimate summaries, and countless applications. Here the summary is not complicated: take this seriously, because Jesus does,

Are you trying to manage your heart or asking God to create a new one? What would it look like to stop managing and start asking?

A week on this passage will do one of two things to you. It will make you despair, or it will drive you somewhere. David wrote Psalm 51 after the worst thing he ever did — after Bathsheba, after Uriah, after months of covering it. And this is the prayer he finally prayed: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." Look at the verb. *Create.* Not repair. Not clean up. Not help me try harder. The Hebrew word is the one used in Genesis 1 for what God does out of nothing. David is not asking for assistance with a self-improvement project. He is asking God to do the kind of thing only God does — to make something that was not there before. That is the honest end of this week. Jesus took the standard so far past your reach that self-management is off the table.

Kent said the seventh commandment was given to safeguard marriage, and that men had twisted it into a loophole for putting away their wives. Read Matthew 5:27-28 out loud. Where exactly does Jesus move the line, and who does that protect?

Discover what Jesus really taught about lust, adultery, and heart transformation in this powerful biblical message from Matthew 5:27-30. Learn why external rules cannot cure internal problems and how…

Kent was blunt that verses 29-30 are deliberate exaggeration — no one should ever literally take out an eye. So what is Jesus actually asking of us, and why say it that violently?

Discover what Jesus really taught about lust, adultery, and heart transformation in this powerful biblical message from Matthew 5:27-30. Learn why external rules cannot cure internal problems and how…

Kent quoted Rosaria Butterfield: "My sin never feels like sin to me. My sin feels like life to me." She added that her heart is an idol factory and her mind an excuse-making factory. Where have you caught your own mind doing the excuse-making?

Discover what Jesus really taught about lust, adultery, and heart transformation in this powerful biblical message from Matthew 5:27-30. Learn why external rules cannot cure internal problems and how…

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Jesus' Shocking Words on Lust · Group Guide

Name: Christchurch Miami
Address: 8485 SW 112th Street, Miami, FL, 33156, US
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Matthew 5:27-30

Kent Keller Sunday, December 14, 2025

Icebreaker

Name a habit you have tried to quit by willpower alone. How did that go, and what finally did or did not work?

Matthew 5:27-30

Discussion Questions

1
Kent said the seventh commandment was given to safeguard marriage, and that men had twisted it into a loophole for putting away their wives. Read Matthew 5:27-28 out loud. Where exactly does Jesus move the line, and who does that protect?
2
Kent was blunt that verses 29-30 are deliberate exaggeration — no one should ever literally take out an eye. So what is Jesus actually asking of us, and why say it that violently?
3
Kent quoted Rosaria Butterfield: "My sin never feels like sin to me. My sin feels like life to me." She added that her heart is an idol factory and her mind an excuse-making factory. Where have you caught your own mind doing the excuse-making?
4
Luther said you cannot stop the birds flying over your head, but you can stop them building a nest in your hair — and Kent added that the first step is always the one that leads to the second. Where is a first step you keep telling yourself is harmless?
5
Kent said nobody quits by announcing "I'll stop." What pulls you out is a higher calling — being dependable for your family, being healthy enough to be there when they need you. What is the higher thing that could pull you away from whatever you are fighting?
6
His practical list was short: be honest with yourself, ask God for help, and have one person you can call when it is bad. Who is that person for you? If there is no name yet, what is the first step you will take this week toward having one?

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Jesus' Shocking Words on Lust · Group Guide

Matthew 5:27-30

Discussion Questions

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