Koan Of Christianity

Since the only sin in sexual mores espressly condemned in the New Testament is adultery - moicheia - and the divorce rate in the US is at least 50%, it raises questions.

The remnants of Jesus' life we have portray not strictly ideals to be achieved, but ideals impossible to achieve - unless (1) you become superhuman, or (2) you realize that the goal is defined by your consciousness and maintained by your consciousness and supported by your belief and conscious striving.

Once we realize perfection is impossible, we shall have arrived, if and only if we have striven to be where we aren't.
If we have not strived to be good, when we realize absolute perfection is impossible, we will fall away into the old refuse of the earth.
If we have strived to be good, and we attain absolute perfection, we shall be insane.
If we have strived to be good, we realize that perfection is not possible to attain, but is a ceaseless striving: in effect, our good consciousness creates that which is not realizable on the earth: absolute perfection.

Good consciousness is built on good teachings and good actions, no politics, no coercion; no persuasion and no threats. Every bad idea, every vile impulse, everything we can think of doing - even if we have not done it - interferes with our creation of good reality.

This is what Jesus meant by sinning in the heart; if you lust after a woman in your heart, it is the same as adultery.
The lust is not a one time sin; it is an ongoing bad consciousness and weakness; it is born, grows, and lives on through time. It is the tendency to be weak which is ongoing. Averting the sin is nothing compared to destroying the long and involved process of weakness and deceit that leads up to the sin.

What we have gotten used to calling "sin" is nothing but an overt act in a long history of covert fear and loathing. Sin flashes out like a nova; the nova galaxy had been there for millions of years, but remained unnoticed until it lighted up.
We sit up and take notice.
But it is the long process, the history of each individual life that is sinful, not the separate and discrete "sins" which we can notice.