Monday, August 25, 2008

The Seventh Word



Exodus 20:14 You shall not commit adultery.

This is a another commandment which seems pretty simple and easy to keep. You pull your checklist out and say, "Okay, I won't have sex with another man's wife." Today's culture is more tolerant of adultery and is more accepting of it as a form of entertainment than it is of murder but it is still generally recognized to be a bad thing.

Jesus went against the popular thinking during his time and ours when he said
"whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery." Society views marriage as a human institution that can be dissolved at will. Jesus says that God unites a man and woman in marriage and only God can dissolve that bond when He kills one of them. The self-deception that man can dissolve a marriage at will can be observed in all the broken homes.

You might read this far and still be convinced that you are innocent of ever having committed adultery. Jesus says that whoever lusts after a woman has already committed adultery. Adultery starts in the heart. Lust creates a multitude of problems that are very similar to the problems associated with abortion. Pro-abortionists do not regard the unborn baby as a person. When you lust, you are not regarding the woman as a person but as an object of pleasure. When you lust you are not looking out for the welfare of the object of your lust and you become guilty of murder.

In the Old Testament adultery is often equated with idolatry. People who worship false gods are said to go whoring after idols. When you commit adultery, lust is your god. When you commit adultery you are taking a member of the body of Christ and joining it to a prostitute (1 Cor. 6). When you commit adultery you are destroying that beautiful picture of Christ and His church that God has given you in marriage.

Praise be to God that the Lamb poured out His blood for whores like you.

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