Mental Sin Is Sin

• Give an example of a mental sin.

• What are some ways that you can control your thoughts?

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.”
Matthew 5:27-29

The Old Testament teaches us about sin, but here in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus takes it up a notch. We know from the Old Testament that murder is a sin, but Jesus tells us that just thinking about committing murder is sin. And this goes for all the other sins as well. It is a sin to think about cheating on a test. It is a sin to think hateful things about your brothers and sisters, even if you don’t say them out loud. Mental sin is sin.

Jesus says to throw away our eye if it’s causing us to sin. He doesn’t want us to actually go gouge out our own eye, but he uses this language to convey the seriousness of mental sins. It would be better to lose an eye than to go to hell because our mental sins kept us away from God.

We can control our thoughts. God gives us the strength to do this. It is not easy, and it takes time and effort to learn to control our minds. But with God’s help, we can keep our minds pure.

PRAYER
Dear God, thank you for your Word. Please help us to keep away from mental sins. Please help us to keep our minds trained on you. Amen.