Jesus: Lustful Intent

For centuries, Matthew 5:27–30 has been quoted to condemn sexual desire, particularly in the form of lust toward women. Jesus’ words, “You have heard it said... but I say to you,” are often used to intensify moral judgment rather than to reveal spiritual understanding. This passage, like much of scripture, speaks not of bodily sin but of the inner workings of the mind—of the fragmentation of consciousness and the urgent need to unify it.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’
But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.”
(Matthew 5:27–30)

At first glance, the language is strikingly severe—gouging out an eye, cutting off a hand. Many have taken this to be a dramatic warning against sexual impurity, interpreting Jesus’ words as a call for extreme moral discipline. But such literal readings overlook the deeper thread running through the Sermon on the Mount. This teaching isn’t about controlling external behaviours, but about reordering the inner life of the mind. The Bible frequently uses sexual allegory as a way of speaking about the mind—its desires, divisions, and union with the divine.

The “Woman” and the Adulterous Mind

In symbolic language, “woman” often represents the subconscious or the subjective realm of mind—the emotional and impressionable side of us. To “look at a woman lustfully” is not about inappropriate desire, but about directing the gaze of awareness toward something that one feels separated from and yet desires to possess. Lust, in this sense, is not sexual—it is the consciousness of lack.

It is the imagining of oneself as apart from that which one seeks to experience. Neville Goddard often said, “You must become the thing you want to be.” To lust is to want without being. It is spiritual adultery: imagining as if God (I AM) is not already one with the fulfilment.

Members of the Body: The Manifold Elohim

When Jesus says, “If your right eye causes you to stumble... cut it off,” he is not advocating physical mutilation. He is describing the fragmentation of the divine mind. The “members” are not your literal limbs—they are your faculties, your mental habits, your ways of seeing, reaching, choosing.

In Hebrew, Elohim is the plural name of God—the manifold powers or aspects that together form one creative consciousness. These “members” of Elohim are your internal powers: perception (eye), action (hand), movement (foot), and so on. But when one of these begins to operate independently of the whole—obsessed with lack, seeing separation, projecting blame—it is better to “cut it off.” That is, to detach from that state of mind.

In Neville’s terms, this is the pruning process of the imagination. You are not being punished—you are being refined. Any state that causes you to “miss the mark” (sin), by identifying as less than whole, must be cast aside. Not because you are bad, but because you are divine — and true pleasure lies in possessing, not lusting. The aim of the Law of Assumption is to imagine pleasurably and delightfully, to feel from the joy of fulfilment rather than the pain of longing.

Hell as the Fragmented Mind

Hell is not a fiery pit—it is a state of divided consciousness. It is the torment of contradiction: to believe you are separate from what you desire, to see yourself as lacking, to strive and pine and yearn rather than assume and be. This is hell.

When your faculties war against each other—when your hand reaches for something your heart does not believe is yours, when your eye is fixated on an outcome that your imagination refuses to claim—you are torn, tormented, and “cast into hell.”

Becoming One: The Fulfilment of the Law

Jesus came not to destroy the law but to fulfil it. And fulfilment means oneness. The fragmented Elohim—the dismembered powers of the human mind—must be gathered into one assumption: 

“I and my Father are one.”

This passage is not about suppressing the body, but about restoring the unity of being. It is a call to cut off every belief, perspective, or faculty that no longer serves the truth of who you are: the Word made flesh, imagination made manifest.