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The Virtue of Lust

Lusty or Lukewarm?
In 1892 the U.S. Supreme Court declared that America was "a Christian nation." Everyone living in America still knows it's wrong to covet your neighbor's wife. Jesus said:

But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Matthew 5:28

But did you know that the Bible says it can be a sin not to lust?

The issue is the object of one's lust.

Jesus said we are not to lust after a woman we can't have ("can't" being determined by God's commandments). Yet it is a sin not to lust after the things God wants us to have. Consider this event in the history of Joash, king of Israel. The prophet Elisha gave him a quiver of arrows and told the king that they symbolized Israel's victory over the Syrians.

Then Elisha said, "Take the arrows"; so he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, "Strike the ground"; so he struck three times, and stopped. {19} And Elisha the man of God was angry with the king, and said, "You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck Syria till you had destroyed it! But now you will strike Syria only three times."
2 Kings 13:18-19

Joash was a wimp. He did not lust for victory. He lacked aggressive dedication to the things of God. It's not that he was against God, he just wasn't really for Him.

And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, "These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: {15} "I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. {16} So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.'"
Revelation 3:14-16

He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.
Matthew 12:30

The Greek word Jesus used in the Sermon on the Mount for "lust" is found in other places with every indication that "lusting" is not wrong:
 
 
 
I saw him beat the surges under him,
And ride upon their backs; he trod the water,
Whose enmity he flung aside, and breasted
The surge most swoln that met him; his bold head
'Bove the contentious waves he kept, and oar'd
Himself with his good arms in lusty stroke
To the shore, that o'er his wave-worn basis bow'd,
As stooping to relieve him: I not doubt
He came alive to land.
Shakespeare
 
 
How lush and lusty the grass looks! how green!

Shakespeare
Matthew 13:17   For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

Luke 16:21  And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.

Luke 17:22   And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it.

Luke 22:15   And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer:

Galatians 5:17   For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit [lusts] against the flesh;

Philippians 1:23   For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:

1 Thessalonians 2:17    But we, brethren, being taken from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavoured the more abundantly to see your face with great desire.

1 Timothy 3:1   This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.

Hebrews 6:11   And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end:

1 Peter 1:12    Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.
For we must not fancy that there is no vice in us, when, as the apostle says, "The flesh lusteth against the spirit;" for to this vice there is a contrary virtue, when, as the same writer says, "The spirit lusteth against the flesh." "For these two," he says, "are contrary one to the other, so that you cannot do the things which you would." But what is it we wish to do when we seek to attain the supreme good, unless that the flesh should cease to lust against the spirit, and that there be no vice in us against which the spirit may lust?
St. Augustine
 Lusting for things we can't have is a futile expenditure of energy. It leaves us exhausted and unproductive. We will have nothing to show for our lives.

Lusting for things God wants us to have conforms us to the Image of our Savior:

Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: "Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for Me. {6} In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure. {7} Then I said, 'Behold, I have come; In the volume of the book it is written of Me; To do Your will, O God.'"
Hebrews 10:5-7

You and I both should both develop a lust for peace, justice -- the triumph of God's Kingdom.

I'm sure you'd be surprised how many hours I've spent thinking up creative ideas to entice a woman to do something that would give me some measure of kicks. My priorities are revealed not by what I say in public or write on a web page as much as they are in the hours I've spent dreaming about an illicit encounter with someone I've met or someone I've never met. Even imagining a "licit" relationship. What if I had the discipline and spiritual power to obey God's commands and desire -- lust -- for His Kingdom instead of my own selfish gratification?
I want you to have the power to conceive great things. God has given you the talents to accomplish great things, if your focus is on Him.
Ring out old shapes of foul disease,
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace!
                              Tennyson

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