Tag Archives: sexual-purity

Guard the Covenant of Your Heart

Posted on by
Reply

One of the primary prohibitions concerning porn and sexual immorality is Christ’s explanation and application of the 7th Commandment (Exodus 20:14). This article comments on this passage from the Sermon on the Mount from a Messianic Christian perspective. – JBW

by George & Baht Rivka

Friend, guard the covenant of your heart! 

Matthew 5:27-30:  “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY.’ 28 But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. (NKJV)

Every time Yeshua (Jesus) says, “You have heard it said… but I say to you,” He is not overturning Torah. He is uncovering it. He is giving us the heart of Torah — a deeper Torah, one that never lived only on tablets of stone but was always meant to be written on the lev (לֵב), the heart. The commandment said, “You shall not commit adultery.” The King says the commandment was never satisfied by restraint alone. It required a heart that never wandered in the first place.

In Hebraic thought, the lev is not merely the seat of emotion. It is the center of the person — the place of thought, desire, will, and decision. So when Yeshua locates adultery in the heart, He is not speaking poetically. He is revealing where covenant faithfulness is won or lost, long before the body ever acts.

Marriage was never merely a social arrangement. It is a holy witness, designed from the beginning to reflect faithfulness, honor, and sacred trust between a man and a woman, and beyond that, the faithfulness of God to His people. This is why lust cannot be dismissed as a small thing. God wants to train our heart to consume what it was called to honor.

This is the deeper Torah: not a lighter standard, but a fuller one. The outward law restrained the hand. The deeper Torah disciplines the desire. Lust is not love. It imagines possession without covenant, pleasure without faithfulness, intimacy without honor. It takes what God made in His image and reduces it to something to be consumed. A deeper Torah will not let that stand, because it was never only about avoiding adultery — it was about honoring covenant.

Then Yeshua speaks with prophetic severity: if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; if your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. He is not commanding mutilation. He is teaching holiness. Remove yourself from what is training your desire away from God. Do not negotiate with what is destroying you. Some things cannot be counseled into holiness — kedushah (קְדֻשָּׁה), the state of being set apart, belonging wholly to God. They must be cut off, if only metaphorically. 

This word is not meant to produce shame. Shame hides. Conviction comes into the light. Shame says, you are dirty, and you can never be clean. The Lord says, bring the hidden thing into My light, and let Me make you whole. This is not repression. It is redemption. Not the death of desire, but its purification. God does not call us to become less human. He calls us to become whole, undivided, and covenantally faithful.

The world trains people to follow every appetite. Understanding the heart of Torah trains disciples to surrender every appetite to the King. So guard what your eyes behold. Guard what your imagination rehearses. Guard what your hand reaches toward. The Father sees the hidden place, and He loves you enough to cleanse it. He is inviting you to gain what sin could never produce: a heart at rest, a desire made whole, and the blessing of walking undivided before Him.

You were not created to be ruled by hidden desire or the wandering of an undisciplined gaze. You were created for covenant faithfulness, purity of heart, and freedom under the reign of the King. This is your inheritance, not your burden. What Yeshua calls you to remove, He has already given you the power to release. You no longer have to manage it or negotiate with it. Cut off the access. Close the door. Turn away the eye. Pull back the hand — not because you are being punished, but because you are being set free. Bring the hidden place into the light, and let the King do what only He can do with it. The King is not shaming you. He is reclaiming you. What He asks you to surrender is not your life; it is the thing stealing your life. Guard the covenant of your heart, because the pure in heart shall see God, and the faithful heart will carry the beauty of the Kingdom.

Your family in the Lord with much agape love,

George & Baht Rivka (Baltimore, MD) 
https://www.worthynews.com
Devotional post – July 16,2026
Reposted with permision

Samson — A Strong Man with a Weak Mind

Posted on by
Reply

by Ray Comfort

“He told her all his heart, and said to her, “No razor has ever come upon my head…” Judges 16:17

What He Did

He fell in love with Delilah, who tried multiple times to betray him—and yet he still told her the secret of his strength.

Why It Was Idiotic

She had already tied him up and called the Philistines on him several times! But he kept going back like a moth to the flame. Eventually, it cost him his eyes, his strength, and his freedom.

Here’s the Scoop

Samson was a unique figure in Israel’s history, set apart before birth to be a Nazarite—a man consecrated to God. His mother, previously barren, was visited by the Angel of the Lord, who told her she would give birth to a son who would begin to deliver Israel from the Philistines, enemies of Israel. As part of his Nazarite vow, Samson was not to cut his hair, drink wine, or touch anything unclean.

God gave Samson supernatural strength, and he became a judge over Israel for twenty years during a time of Philistine oppression. Despite his calling, Samson struggled with personal weakness, especially in the area of women. He famously killed a lion with his bare hands, struck down a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey, and tore down city gates with ease.

His downfall came through Delilah, who was bribed by the Philistines to discover the secret of his strength. After persistent coaxing, Samson revealed that his strength lay in his uncut hair. Delilah had his hair shaved while he slept, and the Lord departed from him. The Philistines captured, blinded, and imprisoned him.

In his final act, Samson prayed for strength one last time and pulled down the pillars of a Philistine temple, killing himself along with thousands of Philistines:

Samson had so much going for him. His birth was supernatural—his mother was barren, and yet God opened her womb specifically to bring forth a man who would do His will:

For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. And no razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. (Judges 13:5)

He was set apart as a Nazarite from the womb, meant to live wholly dedicated to God. In a similar way, the moment we came to true saving faith in Jesus of Nazareth, we too were set apart and dedicated to God. In Romans 12:1, the apostle Paul instructs us to live out this reality:

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

Yet, though Samson was strong physically, he was weak spiritually. He lacked self-control when it came to sexual sin:

  • He pursued Philistine women, directly violating God’s command not to intermarry (Judges 14:3).
  • He visited a prostitute (Judges 16:1).
  • He became entangled with Delilah, a woman who ultimately betrayed him (Judges 16:4–21).

The question must rise: “How could a man of God visit a prostitute?” Easily. This is because sin—especially sexual sin—has a way of blinding us.

From Idiotic Things People Did in the Bible

Samson — A Strong Man with a Weak Mind
Copyright 2025 by Ray Comfort, LivingWaters.com
Shared according to permission