Matthew 5:28

The Pulpit Commentary - Matthew 5:27-32

Purity. In the preceding paragraph Jesus expounded the spirituality of the Law in ruling the passions; here he pursues the subject in respect to the appetites. The case of adultery is typical or representative of the series. Learn— I. THAT THE LAW IS KEPT OR BROKEN IN THE HEART . 1 . Acts are good or evil as expressions of the heart. (1) This was the reverse of the teaching of the elders. Especially so in the school of Hillel. Hence the Pharisees took the... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Matthew 5:28

But I say ( Matthew 5:22 , note). The bare command forbidding an external action is insufficient. It must extend to the thought. Contrast Josephus ('Ant.,' 12.9. 1), "The purposing to do a thing, without actually doing it, is not worthy of punishment." Generally, however, the sinfulness of wrong thoughts must have been acknowledged (cf. Psalms 51:10 , and the tenth commandment; cf. late examples in Schottgen). Hammond ('Pr. Cat.,' in Ford) says, "In the Law, the fastening of the eyes on... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Matthew 5:28

Cherished evil feeling is sin before God. It is not possible to deal, in a general audience, with the precise subject introduced in this text; but it is possible to treat it as illustrating the searching character of God's Law, which goes in behind all acts of sin, and recognizes the states of mind and feeling out of which acts of sin would surely come if opportunity offered. "Man looketh on the outward appearance, but God looketh on the heart." And yet we have to make a very precise... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Matthew 5:27-28

Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery - See the notes at Matthew 5:21. Our Saviour in these verses explains the seventh commandment. It is probable that the Pharisees had explained this commandment, as they had the sixth, as extending only to the external act; and that they regarded evil thoughts and a wanton imagination as of little consequence, or as not forbidden by the law. Our Saviour assures them that the commandment did not regard the external... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Matthew 5:27-28

Matthew 5:27-28. Ye have heard, &c. Jesus now proceeds in his sermon to the seventh commandment, the true interpretation of which he gives us. Thou shalt not commit adultery This, as well as the sixth commandment, the scribes and Pharisees interpreted barely of the outward act. But I say unto you, &c. The command extends not only to unchaste actions and words, but even to looks, and the very thoughts of the heart: for whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her Whosoever... read more

Donald C. Fleming

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Matthew 5:21-48

40. Legal obedience is not enough (Matthew 5:21-48; Luke 6:27-36; Luke 12:57-59)After his explanation concerning right and wrong attitudes to the law, Jesus gives a number of examples. He introduces these examples with statements such as ‘You have heard that it was said in the past’. This is not the same as ‘It is written’. Jesus is not quoting from the Old Testament but from the teachings of the scribes and Pharisees. He is not contradicting the law but the interpretations of the law that the... read more

E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Matthew 5:28

whosoever = every one that. looketh = keeps looking See App-133 . a woman = a married woman. read more

James Burton Coffman

Coffman Commentaries on the Bible - Matthew 5:28

But I say unto you, that everyone that looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.Thus, Christ made the lustful thought as sinful as the overt act. In the light of this, who is innocent? In this commandment, just as in the case of the Fifth Commandment, Jesus was more concerned with antecedents than with overt sins. Adultery proceeds from impure thinking; and in this passage Christ's law appears far higher and more discerning than the Decalogue. read more

Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Matthew 5:27-28

Matthew 5:27-28. Ye have heard, &c.— What has been hitherto said refers to meekness; what now follows, to purity of heart. Dr. Lightfoot, to explain the opinion of the Jewish doctors, respecting the duty of this seventh commandment, cites the Targum upon Exodus 20:0 by which it appears, that they were very loose moralists indeed. In opposition therefore to them, our Lord declared, that whosoever looketh on a woman, &c. whosoever cherishes unchaste desires and intentions, or, as it is... read more

Robert Jamieson; A. R. Fausset; David Brown

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Matthew 5:28

28. But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her—with the intent to do so, as the same expression is used in :-; or, with the full consent of his will, to feed thereby his unholy desires. hath committed adultery with her already in his heart—We are not to suppose, from the word here used—"adultery"—that our Lord means to restrict the breach of this commandment to married persons, or to criminal intercourse with such. The expressions, "whosoever looketh," and "looketh... read more

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