Inside -out transformation

Matthew 5: 27 - 30

"anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart"

In this antithesis, Jesus quotes the seventh commandment concerning adultery (Ex. 20:14) and alludes to the tenth, concerning coveting a neighbor's wife (Ex. 20:17). Again, Jesus is not negating the Old Testament teaching but confronting its faulty interpretation. The Law had been misused by the religious leaders who saw it as external performance rather than a matter of the heart. They became legalists who measured religious piety by their own external standards. Jesus' interpretation of the Law on the other hand brings it to fulfillment, to achieve God's purposes for human life. He teaches 'inside-out' transformation.

As part of my training in counselling, I read a book called "Inside Out" by Larry Crabb. That was one of the first books on counselling that I read and it made a great impact on me. I began to realize that the authentic Christian life did not consist in mere outward actions, however pious they seemed. I recognized that doing the right things in church was not enough, if I did not acknowledge and allow the Lord to work on the areas within me that were not transformed. It was a grace, even though a painful one, to admit that there were many areas within me that needed the Lord's healing and moulding. At its deepest level, Crabb explains, sin is a result of turning from the Lord, our spring of living water...and digging broken cisterns of our own, that can hold no water at all (Jer. 2: 13). Sin is the way of self- protection, of trying to fix the inevitable pains of living in a broken world, yet doing it our own way. That admission was one of the most freeing experiences of my Christian life. Before the Lord, I did not have to pretend to be what I was not. He was more interested in changing me from the inside than in all the religious acts I could perform for him and others. The process of healing and moulding continues today. It will be a lifelong process. But that is the only way that my inward heart disposition will match my actions. I will become more and more authentic as a person, honest with myself, with God and with others.