Lust, Adultery and Injury: Why the battle must be fought

Here's a great quote for a generation and culture awash in the the problems associated with lust. The following comes from Kairos Journal.

The Importance of Eyes—John Chrysostom (c. 349 – 407)

John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople and renowned preacher, here counsels those who struggle with the mental sin of lust. In his Homilies on Matthew’s Gospel, he encourages the right use of the eyes and warns the wayward.

Rather, if thou desirest to look and find pleasure, look at thine own wife, and love her continually; no law forbids that. But if thou art to be curious about the beauties that belong to another, thou art injuring both thy wife by letting thine eyes wander elsewhere, and her on whom thou hast looked, by touching her unlawfully. Since, although thou hast not touched her with the hand, yet thou hast caressed her with thine eyes; for which cause this also is accounted adultery . . .¹

Footnotes:

1	John Chrysostom, Chrysostom’s Homilies on St. Matthew Part One (Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1843), 256. In other translations see Homily 17 on Matthew 5:27.