This is probably a good place to make a distinction between temptation and sin. If you don’t know the difference, I can almost guarantee that you’re allowing Satan to beat you up for crimes you haven’t committed. Temptation is not sin. Temptation is largely out of your control (provided you aren’t putting yourself in harm’s way). You can be tempted by miniskirts all day long and not sin. Sin happens when the look turns into a linger. It happens again when the linger turns into a lust, but the look is typically involuntary. (I’m talking about the first look, gentlemen, not the second.)
You are wired to notice an attractive woman. God gave you that wiring to attract you to your wife. But once you’ve found her, you need to fight the temptation. Train your eyes not to follow the woman who just walked by. You’ll get better at it with practice, and the temptation will become less, but you may never get rid of it entirely – at least not until we get the new bodies Christ ordered for us. Train yourself, but don’t beat yourself up if you mistakenly glance. As soon as you realize you are being tempted, bounce your eyes off the temptation and look somewhere else.
You get into trouble when you allow yourself to continue to look or to look again. That’s lingering, and that’s sin. If you recognize you’re being tempted, you’ve got to disengage to continue to walk blamelessly. If you allow that linger to turn into mentally undressing the woman or imagining sexual acts with her, you’ve fallen into full-blown lust, and Jesus said that was as bad as actually committing the act you’ve fantasized about. (Matthew 5:28 )
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