Lust is the desire to experience physical, sensual pleasures (not just those which are sexual). Desire for physical pleasures is considered sinful because it causes us to ignore more important spiritual needs or commandments. Sexual desire is also sinful according to traditional Christianity because it leads to using sex for more than procreation.
Condemning lust and physical pleasure is part of Christianity's general effort to promote the afterlife over this life and what it has to offer. It helps lock people into the view that sex and sexuality exist only for procreation, not for love or even just the pleasure of the acts themselves. Christian denigration of physical pleasures generally, and sexuality in particular, have been among some of the most serious problems with Christianity throughout its history.
The popularity of lust as a sin can be attested by the fact that more gets written in condemnation of it than for just about any other sin. It's also just about the only one of the Seven Deadly Sins which people today, including Christians, continue to regard as sinful. We regularly hear people complain about "inappropriate" sexual behavior, but when was the last time a Christian leader spoke out against pride, envy, gluttony, or even anger?
In some places, it seems that the entire spectrum of moral behavior has been reduced to various aspects of sexual morality and concern with maintaining sexual purity. This is especially true when it comes to the Christian Right - it's not without good reason that nearly everything they say about "values" and "family values" involve sex or sexuality in some form.
Lustful people, those guilty of committing the deadly sin of lust, will be punished in hell by being smothered in fire and brimstone. There doesn't appear to be much connection between this and the sin itself, unless one assumes that the lustful spent their time being "smothered" with physical pleasure and must now endure being smothered by physical torment.
This image appeared in 1496 in Le grant kalendrier des Bergiers, published by Nicolas le Rouge in Troyes, France. It looks remarkably like it should be the punishment for the deadly sin of greed: being boiled in oil.
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