Matthew 5:28

Strong's Greek #1937, ἐπιθυμέω to set one's heart upon

The immediate problem with the traditional rendering of this verse is the trap that it puts every man into, for, there is no man on earth who did not first "lust" or "passionately desire" a woman before pursuing her, as the initial draw for him to pursue a woman whether to date or marry, starts visually. And there is no wife who did not first go great lengths to draw him in visually, before marrying him. What man did not commit this "sin" of taking into account the sexual attraction before choosing and marrying his wife? What man pursued his wife out of a purely arbitrary, non-sexually based, way? Did he buy her completely covered up in a marketplace like a mystery bride, and then wait until tying the knot to know what she looked like? Therefore any man who would deny that his marriage did not begin in such a "sin" is a liar. The absurdy of this could not be understated, and it is not only absurd but cruelly absurd. For this reason the meaning of ἐπιθυμέω was given a different definition of "sexual urge/lust" which is not an inherent meaning in Classical usage.

The verb ἐπιθυμέω in classical and Koine Greek does not inherently carry a sexual connotation. Its semantic range centers on desire, longing, coveting, or setting the heart on, and it is context-dependent whether that desire is material, emotional, political, or erotic.