[RnMomof7]

I think Jesus was making a point here ... Women do not understand the strength of the sex drive God gave men .. We do not understand that a man may have sexual thoughts over what to us seems innocuous .

I have a very strong Christian friend who will not go to see that new “christian “ surfer because the movie has a lot of girls in skimpy swim suits.. he is a grandfather, not a kid.. yet he keeps himself from that “occasion of sin”

Most of us are not good at making a decision when a mental temptation turns into a sin .. when admiring your friends new car becomes covetous.. or when looking at a woman becomes covertness or lust..

Jesus was more pointed earlier in the chapter when he said we do not even have to think about killing our brother in order to be guilty of it.. all we need do is think he is a fool..

The dividing line between Temptation and mental sin is very thin ... much thinner than actually acting on our thoughts

[Notwithstanding]

To paraphrase your own attitude:

Who cares what you think?
The Word of God is clear.
It says what it says.
You have added a manmade doctrine to it,
which is worth spittle.

[Notwithstanding]

[boatbums]

Rather than try to reason out when or how long looking becomes sin, we should remember that the whole point Jesus was making was to convince these self-righteous “religious” people that they were not so holy as they thought they were. The law was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. Without acknowledging we are all sinners, we would not understand our need for a savior. That was his real point, I think.