Not to Sin in the Eye, Heart, or Thought is To Keep the Law of Liberty
눈으로도 마음으로도 생각으로도 범법하지 않는 것이 자유율법을 지키는 것
The sins of lust and theft are considered the most serious in the Bible. In the time of Moses a man and a woman, witnessed in a lecherous act by two or three people, would be dragged out and stoned to death. Their bodies, thought too offensive to the sight, were burned. So it was with thievery. If caught in the act of stealing, the thief was stoned to death and burned. These two were the greatest sins.
According to the law of liberty, if a woman looks at a man and feels even a hint of lust, she is guilty of lechery and is doomed to hell. The Book of James says, “You keep all the laws but one and you have broken all of them,” and goes on to admonish, “Speak and act as those who shall be judged by the law of liberty.” This law of liberty is the law of conscience. When a female has an untoward thought toward a male, she has thereby committed adultery. Likewise when a male has an untoward thought toward a female, he is adulterous. Thoughts should have no improper stirring. This is what is meant to keep the law of liberty. Under the law of Moses, you can put out your hand and touch an object you covet without committing a crime. You could say, “I touched it because it’s so beautiful,” and that would have been the end of it. You are not chargeable yet as a thief, not until you are seen snatching it and stashing it away in your pocket, when they come and nab you, shouting “Thief!” Merely touching it does not constitute a crime. But under the law of liberty, the moment greed kicks in, regarding an object as desirable, you have committed theft.
Also according to the law of Moses, you are guilty of murder if, driven by an excessive impulse, you actually stab someone to death with a knife. Hatred by itself, though so extreme that it fills your thoughts with a burning desire to kill, is still not murder. But the law of conscience says that at the onset of hatred you are already guilty of murder. That is fundamental, because it is where the value of religion lies. That is the basis of belief in God. So know that you should not offend either in thought or in mind. The Christian church promises salvation by merely keeping the Ten Commandments, but that is not enough to obtain salvation. Sin must be uprooted at the base. Excerpts from sermons given on August 17, 1980, and October 12, 1980.