Cultural Amputation

I have been studying the Sermon on the Mount recently.  Today I’m meditating on verses 27-30.  Adultery.  Us guys know this all too well: lust is fueled by sight, which leads to immorality in the heart, which in turn can and sometimes leads to outward immorality; but here’s the thing…ALL ARE SIN!  I think Mike Bickle said one time that the urges are there but “there is no form of the gospel in which we are not required to deny the urge.”  The biggest thing I have been looking at is the cutting off verses (29-30).  Jesus is essentially saying: even if the most valued things in your life cause you to sin, get rid of them.  I can tell, though, He likes using this imagery.  Maybe because He is smashing the religiosity of the pharisees and takes things external, since they did as well.  Jesus teaches this again in Matthew 18:8-9, connected to sin.  I was reading John Stott’s commentary and he said something to the effect of us being culturally maimed in order to preserve purity; and we have to be willing to accept some cultural amputation in this world, than risk destruction in the next.  That set me off to pray for an hour today.  Cultural amputation!  Not just in the area of lust, but all areas.  We are to be salt in the world, but if the salt has become tasteless, it is no longer worth anything.  We must walk as cultural amputees.