Translation
But I say to you that anyone who looks at a woman in order to lust after her
Go to footnote numberhas committed adultery with her in his heart.
Paraphrase
But I tell you that if anyone, with lustful intent, seeks an opportunity to look at a woman when she is not as covered up as she should be in public, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Footnotes
1
In ancient Israel the women dressed in such a way that when they were in public there was not much to catch the attention of a man, except her eyes, and possible a bit of shape for just a moment when the wind blew just right. I assume that to “look in order to lust after her” would usually involve some abnormal activity such as going to the river and hiding in the bushes while the women washed the clothes, or finding a vantage point from which one could watch a woman bathe, which usually would require a height advantage like what David had overlooking the house of Uriah and Bathsheba. Today there is plenty of sexual stimuli everywhere one looks in most cultures of the world with the exception of Muslim cultures. God’s standard has not changed, but living by it is exponentially more difficult.
When we studied the sacrificial system of the Former Covenant we learned that there was no sacrifice for purposeful sins committed knowingly and defiantly. If we look at lust and adultery in that light, we realize that those two things were similar in that there was no sacrifice to atone for either one of them. Under the Law, people thought they could get away with lust more easily than adultery, but according to Jesus, in the New Covenant there is little hope for getting away with any such thing.