Theological Meaning of Lusting After Jesus
The phrase "lusting after Jesus" does not appear in Scripture or traditional theological vocabulary. Biblical usage of "lust" (Greek epithumia, Hebrew ta'avah) consistently denotes sinful desire—what Easton's defines as "the inward sin which leads to the falling away from God" [1]. When Scripture addresses proper desire for Christ, it employs entirely different terminology: pursuit, love, longing, or zeal.
The Biblical Vocabulary of Desire for Christ
Paul commands believers to "earnestly pursue love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts" [2], using zēloō (to be zealous) rather than epithumeō (to lust). Similarly, the exhortation to "flee youthful lusts" in 2 Timothy 2:22 [3] contrasts sinful desire with the positive command to "pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace." John Gill interprets these "youthful lusts" not primarily as sexual temptations but as "vain glory, popular applause, seeking to have the pre-eminence" [11]—ambitions incompatible with devotion to Christ. The linguistic distinction matters: Scripture reserves epithumia for desires that originate in fallen nature, what James describes as being "drawn away of his own lust and enticed" [13].
The proper affective posture toward Christ appears in passages describing love (agapē), devotion, and spiritual hunger. Paul writes of being "jealous over you with a jealousy of God," having "promised you to one Man, to present you a pure virgin to Christ" [4]. This marital metaphor frames the church's relationship to Christ as exclusive devotion, not disordered craving. Torrey's Topical Textbook catalogs manifestations of love to Christ: "seeking him," "obeying him," "ministering to him," "preferring him to all others" [7]—active, volitional commitments rather than passive appetites.
Patristic Distinctions Between Carnal and Spiritual Desire
Augustine distinguishes between carnal desires and what he calls being "inebriated with spiritual longings" [8]. In his homily on John 16:7, he describes Thomas's encounter with the risen Christ as awakening from a kind of sleep—a movement from physical verification to spiritual recognition. The beatitude "blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed" [8] points toward a mode of desire purified of sensory dependence. Augustine elsewhere warns against the soul "prostituting itself for the base pleasure of the lower nature" [9], a corruption that occurs when reason submits to appetite rather than ruling it.
Aquinas addresses Christ's own human nature, noting that "the Son of God must have assumed together with the human nature whatever belongs to animal nature; one of which things is the sensitive appetite, which is called the sensuality" [10]. Christ possessed a complete human psychology, including the capacity for natural desire, yet without sin. This theological framework distinguishes between natural human affections (which Christ sanctified by assuming them) and disordered passions (which he never experienced).
The Danger of Misapplied Categories
Calvin warns that worldly lusts obstruct true worship, identifying them as obstacles to grace alongside ungodliness [14]. To speak of "lusting after Jesus" collapses this distinction, importing the language of disordered appetite into the sphere of sanctified devotion. The metaphor risks reducing spiritual desire to a species of natural craving—precisely what Scripture resists. When John describes the disciple "whom Jesus sincerely loved" [5], the verb (agapaō) denotes covenant faithfulness, not emotional intensity divorced from obedience.
Charles Hodge's discussion of Christ's sufferings emphasizes their judicial character: they were "not merely the pains of martyrdom, but were judicially inflicted in satisfaction of justice" [12]. This reminds us that our relationship to Christ is fundamentally covenantal and legal before it is affective. The proper order places obedience and faith prior to emotional experience, not as its substitute but as its ground.
Scripture consistently directs believers toward Christ using the vocabulary of pursuit, seeking, and love—terms that imply active will and moral commitment. The language of lust, by contrast, describes what must be fled [3], not cultivated. Proper desire for Christ involves what Peter describes as "searching for what, or what sort of time the Spirit of Christ made clear" [6]—a disciplined, Spirit-led longing oriented toward revelation and obedience, not self-gratification.
Sources
- Easton's Bible Dictionary “Easton's Bible Dictionary: Lust — Sinful longing; the inward sin which leads to the falling away from God (Rom. 1:21). "Lust, the origin of sin, has its place in the heart, not of necessity, but because it is the centre of all moral forces and impulses and of spiritual activity." In Mark 4:19 "lusts" are objects of desire.”
- I Corinthians “I Corinthians 14:1 (BSB) — Earnestly pursue love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy.”
- II Timothy “II Timothy 2:22 (Darby) — But youthful lusts flee, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart.”
- II Corinthians “II Corinthians 11:2 (LITV) — For I am jealous over you with a jealousy of God. For I have promised you to one Man, to present you a pure virgin to Christ.”
- John “Then Peter, turning around, saw a disciple following. This was the disciple whom Jesus sincerely loved, the one who had also leaned on Jesus’ breast at the supper and asked, “Lord, who is going to betray You?” -- John 21:20”
- I Peter “I Peter 1:11 (LITV) — searching for what, or what sort of time the Spirit of Christ made clear within them; testifying beforehand of the sufferings belonging to Christ, and the glories after these.”
- Torrey's Topical Textbook “Torrey's Topical Textbook: Love to Christ — Exhibited by God -- Mt 17:5; Joh 5:20. Exhibited by saints -- 1Pe 1:8. His personal excellence is deserving of -- Song 5:9-16. His love to us a motive to -- 2Co 5:14. Manifested in Seeking him. -- Song 3:2. Obeying him. -- Joh 14:15,21,23. Ministering to him. -- Mt 27:55; 25:40. Preferring him to all others. -- Mt 10:37. Taking up the cross for Him. -- Mt 10:38. A characteristic of saints -- Song 1:4. An evidence of adoption -- Joh 8:42. Should be Sincere. -- Eph 6:24. With the soul. -- Song 1:7. In proportion to our mercies. -- Lu 7:47. Supreme. -- ”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 6: Augustine — Homilies on the Gospels — ON THE WORDS OF THE GOSPEL, JOHN XVI. 7, "I TELL YOU THE TRUTH; IT IS EXPEDIENT FOR YOU THAT I GO AWAY," ETC. (part 3): carnal desires, and inebriated with spiritual longings, sigh after. Whence it was that when that disciple who had said that he would not believe, unless he touched with the hands His Scars, after he had handled the Lord's Body, cried out as though awaking from sleep, "My Lord and my God;" the Lord said to him, "Because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed."(1) This ”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 6: Augustine — Homilies on the Gospels — CHAP. XII.--33. "Ye have heard that it was said to them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: but I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery wi (part 3): it is ruled, and prostituting itself for the base pleasure of the lower nature as its reward (so to speak), is thereby corrupted? And therefore let every one who feels carnal pleasure rebelling against right inclination in his own case through the habit of sinning, by whose unsubdued violence he is dragged into captivity, recall to mind”
- theology (Catholic (Scholastic)) “Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Third Part (Tertia Pars), Of Christ's Unity of Will, Art. 2: Article: Whether in Christ there was a will of sensuality besides the will of reason? I answer that, As was said (Question [9], Article [1]), the Son of God assumed human nature together with everything pertaining to the perfection of human nature. Now in human nature is included animal nature, as the genus in its species. Hence the Son of God must have assumed together with the human nature whatever belongs to animal nature; one of which things is the sensitive appetite, which is called the sensuality. Con”
- 2 Timothy (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on 2 Timothy 2:22: Flee also youthful lusts,.... Meaning not lusts of uncleanness, lasciviousness, and filthiness; nor any of those follies and vanities which the youthful age usually lusts and desires after, to which Timothy was not inclined; but such lusts as are apt to prevail with young ministers of the Gospel, such as vain glory, popular applause, seeking to have the pre-eminence, contentions with, and contempt of others, and the like. But follow righteousness; the righteousness of Christ; or doing that which is just between man and man, and as one man would choose another sho”
- CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 2, section 129: dread in the prospect of death, so it was consistent with the feeling of depression and anguish under the obscuration of the favour of God. As the sufferings of Christ were not merely the pains of martyrdom, but were judicially inflicted in satisfaction of justice, they produced the effect due to their specific character. This of course does not imply that our Lord suffered as the finally impenitent suffer. Their sufferings are determined by their subjective state. The loss of the divine favour produces in them hatred, venting itself in ”
- James (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on James 1:14: But every man is tempted,.... To sin, and he falls in with the temptation, and by it, when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed; the metaphor is taken either from fishes, who are enticed by the bait, and drawn out by the hook; or from a lascivious woman, who meeting with a young man, entices him, and draws him away after her to commit iniquity with her: by "lust" is meant the principle of corrupt nature, which has its residence in the heart of man; is natural and hereditary to him, and therefore is called his own; he is conceived and shapen in it; he brings i”
- CCEL (Reformed) “John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, section 62: and the glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works,” ( Tit. 2:11-14 ). After holding forth the grace of God to animate us, and pave the way for His true worship, he removes the two greatest obstacles which stand in the way—viz. ungodliness, to which we are by nature too prone, and worldly lusts, which are of still greater extent. Under ungodliness , he includes not merely superst”