Church Fathers on Matthew 5:28

The Lord having explained how much is contained in the first commandment, namely, 'Thou shalt not kill,' proceeds in regular order to the second.

'Thou shalt not commit adultery,' that is, Thou shalt go no where but to thy lawful wife. For if you exact this of your wife, you ought to do the same, for the husband ought to go before the wife in virtue. It is a shame for the husband to say that this is impossible. Why not the husband as well as the wife? And let not him that is unmarried suppose that he does not break this commandment by fornication; you know the price wherewith you have been bought, you know what you eat…

Between παθος and προπαθεια , that is between actual passion and the first spontaneous movement of the mind, there is this difference: passion is at once a sin; the spontaneous movement of the mind, though it partakes of the evil of sin, is yet not held for an offence committed. [ed. note, h: In this passage S. Jerome , who seems to have introduced the word propassio, προπαθεια , into theology, uses it somewhat in a sense of his own; viz. as involving something of the nature…