Why Lust Abominable? The void brings the worst animal out of you

People argue that lust is somehow an alternative form of love and that prohibiting it simply keeps two people from loving each other.  In previous posts, I defined lust as a form of worship.  In Idolizing someone, people try to fill the God shaped vacuum in their heart with the object of their affection.   Unseating the living God from this position leaves a terrible void and an intense yearning referred to as lust.  Idolaters pervert charitable love into a misplaced form of worship.  This changes the nature of human relationships from one of mutual giving into one of intense neediness.  Depraved individuals have nothing to give; for they are empty themselves.  So lust is always forced to fake it in order to catch it’s prey.  Herein lies the reason lust would always have you mistake itself for love.  Idolaters do not really love their spouses but the image of who they think they are.  This is why couples should take it slow in dating- to discover whether they are in love with the real person or only who they imagine them to be.  Reality eventually sheds light on this.  Scripture also describes how people corrupt themselves with their idols.  Being corrupted implies you are willing to do any evil thing to get what you desire.  Once something takes priority over God in one’s heart, a person will stop at nothing to get what they want.  Idolatry will bring out the worst animal behavior in people.  The Bible even refers to people as such when they lust like this:

“How shall I pardon you for this?  Your children have forsaken me and sworn by those that are not Gods.  When I had fed them to the full, then they committed adultery and assembled themselves by troops in the harlot’s houses.  They were like well-fed lusty stallions; everyone neighed after his neighbor’s wife.  Shall I not punish them for these things?  Says the Lord…” Jer 5:7

“See how you have behaved in the valley; consider what you have done.  You are swift she-camel running here and there, a wild donkey accustomed to the desert, sniffing the wind in her craving- in her heat who can restrain her?  Any male that pursue her need not tire themselves; at mating time they will find her.  Do not run until your feet are bare and your throat is dry.  But you said, ‘it’s no use! I love foreign Gods, and I must go after them.” Jer 2:23-25

This creates a problem because love cannot be fostered apart from treating your partner right. All too many people get into a relationship imagining their hormones will carry them through only to find their personal sins land them in divorce court.  All divorces occur for this reason without exception.  Passions cannot trump righteousness and survive.  They may burn hot but they have no staying power in themselves.  God is not against hormones but they must always be broken in by righteousness.   A man must control his desire for visual gratification and sex, if He is going to be loyal to his wife and make her feel loved.  A woman must temper her feelings for affection and attention to remain emotionally connected with her husband.  The Holy Spirit who is love indwelling the believer provides such a level of self-control to each.  All idolaters lack this discipline.  Lust cannot be love because of this obsession with gratifying self rather than caring for another.  This neurosis within the idolater causes all sorts of interpersonal conflicts. You can’t play with fire and not expect it to set your life on fire eventually.  Idolaters chase the objects they crave but their very behavior undermines those relationships making real fulfillment in them impossible.  So the rainbow’s end always remains yet ahead of them.   This is why idolatry is folly and madness.  God has to remain on the throne of your heart or else fulfillment in your relationships will perish.  Give your heart to God and you will find the love and fulfillment you never really had.

Related Links:
Lust, Love contrasts defined: One Worship, the Other Charity
Lust, Lewdness,Licentiousness: Feelings/Behavior Fueled by Fantasy
Lust,Desperation-why it is unattractive.
Why Lust always turns Kinky and Perverted