We’ve been taught to flee sexual immorality (see: 1 Cor 6:18), and rightly so! We’ve learned to guard our hearts, to make covenants our eyes and to cut off anything that causes us to sin.
But, we haven’t learned to embrace passion and desire, tempered with self-control.
The product? A vacuum called passivity.
Question: What happens when an evil spirit leaves its home, and its left empty? Eventually, the demon comes back, with all its friends (see: Luke 11:21-26). What happens if you remove Lust from your life and don’t fill the void with godly passion? Passivity moves in, with all his friends: Legalism, Loneliness and Pride. Deceiving many, these call themselves “Holiness,” “Set-Apart,” and “Wisdom.”
Passivity says, “Don’t move, don’t look, don’t touch and you’ll be safe from lust! You’ll be safe from pain! And disappointment!” Unfortunately, in truth, Passivity robs us of the deeply satisfying experience of embracing beauty and having our longings fulfilled, by God’s design!
It was in Adam’s nature to want Eve, and he was certainly not passive about it! His passion led him to action. It led him to discover her, to bond and covenant with her. He was rewarded with fulfillment when he followed his desire. This was God’s idea! This kind of desire is described in the Bible by the Hebrew word chamad and the Greek word orexis.
Interestingly, these two words can also be translated: “lust[1].”
You see, here’s the thing: the enemy takes a perfectly healthy, normal desire for something pleasant, beautiful or attractive and twists and perverts it, splashes in a dash of fear, anxiety and pride and…voila! Lust!
Lust is personified by a strong desire that compels us to take something that does not belong to us. It is covetous. Its goal? Personal gratification. It hides within a labyrinth of discontent, despair, fear and lies. Lust is a child of the great deceiver. It comes to kill, steal and destroy. This is the kind of lust that Jesus warned us against (see Matthew 5:28).
In contrast, have you ever noticed what healthy “lust,” (attraction, passion and desire) drove Jesus to do?
To be continued…here!
– Cara Santos
[1] These words for “lust” do not just mean sinful lust, as we would describe it in English. In fact, they are more frequently translated as “desire” or “longing for something beautiful” more often than they are translated as “lust” or “coveting.” Chamad: Strongs H2530; Orexis: Strongs G3713
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