"You Shall Not Commit Adultery"
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November 30, 2014 |
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 "You shall not commit adultery" (Exodus 20:14).
Senior Pastor Dr. Jaerock Lee
Adultery is defined as the voluntary sexual relations between a married person and someone other than his or her lawful spouse. In the past, this was considered a serious sin. But today people's consciences have become so numbed and they have little sense of sin. As a result they easily commit such sins in action.
No matter how full of sins this world is, however, we, as children of God, should be awake and walk in the Light always (Romans 13:12). This seventh commandment telling us not to commit adultery contains other spiritual meanings beyond just prohibiting us from the act of adultery. Let's look into them.
Firstly, we must not commit adultery in action
Adultery in action is one of the typical works of the flesh, and the Bible clearly tells us that those who commit this sin will not be saved (Galatians 5:19-21).
1 Corinthians 6:9-10 reads, "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God."
Of course, in case of a new-believer who has little knowledge of the truth, God may give him a chance of repentance. But after knowing the truth to some extent, if one commits this kind of evident work of flesh, it is very difficult to receive the spirit of repentance. Leviticus 20:10 warns us, saying, "If there is a man who commits adultery with another man's wife, one who commits adultery with his friend's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death."
In addition, the Bible strictly prohibits consensual sexual intercourse between two people not married to each other and relations with an animal or with a partner of the same gender. God sternly forbids us to commit such sins lest we be led to death because He loves us. Therefore, you should not follow this trend of this world and make yourself unclean.
Secondly, we must cast off adultery of the heart
In Matthew 5:27-28, Jesus said that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Before men commit sins in action, they first have sins in their heart. Because they hate others in the heart, they cause damage to others, and because they have anger in their heart, they get angry. In the same way, if one has an adulterous mind in heart, it can develop into acts of adultery.
Therefore, even if it hasn't come out in action yet, if he has it in the heart, it is already commission of adultery. It originates from the same root with adultery. Some people teach that men cannot cast off adultery from the heart and they can only try to suppress it. Of course, by men's ability, we cannot do it. But if we receive God's strength through prayers and fasting, we can remove this sinful nature from our heart.
Jesus wore the crown of thorns and shed His precious blood to forgive us of the sins we commit in our thoughts. Moreover, God sent us the Holy Spirit, who helps us eliminate sinful natures in our heart. If we once root out the sinful nature, we won't even think about the untruth. Of course, in the process of casting it off, we may feel it keeps coming up again and again. But if we are really trying to cast off sins and evil by believing the Word of God and obeying it, we never stay at the same state.
When we peel away layers of an onion, even after peeling off a couple of layers, we still get the same-looking layers, but if we continue peeling it off, finally, nothing will be left to remove. The same goes with our sinful natures. So if we have faith, we won't be discouraged. We should believe that we will be renewed to the extent that we try and soon be sanctified.
In the process of casting off the sinful nature, even if adulterous thought came into your mind for a moment, God does not condemn you to have committed adultery. It's a problem when you develop the thought more with your imagination. But if you repent of it immediately after you realize it and just keep on trying to become sanctified, God will give you more grace and strength.
Thirdly, we must not commit spiritual adultery
Both physical adultery in action and that in heart fall under fleshly adultery. But more fearful than these is spiritual adultery. Spiritual adultery is committed when one loves the world more than God although he professes his faith in God.
Colossians 3:5-6 states, "Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience."
Even if one received the Holy Spirit, experienced God's works, and has faith, if he doesn't cast off greed from his heart, he will love worldly things more than God. That is, if he has greed, it will lead to spiritual idolatry, and by extension, it will become spiritual adultery.
Then, how are the spiritual idolatry in the second commandment and the spiritual adultery in the seventh commandment different? Spiritual idolatry contains every 'thing' that we love more than God. Fleshly idolatry is when a man who does not know God at all makes an image and worships it. But when a man who has weak faith loves the world more than God, it is spiritual idolatry.
Being a new-believer, for he has little faith, he may love money, fame or their family members more than God, thus they are spiritual idols to him. But as he listens to the Word and prays, he comes to believe in heart that the Word in the Bible is true and that there are Heaven and Hell. He gets to know he should love God first. Now, he has gained such faith. But if he still loves the world more than God and continually accepts things that belong to darkness, it is to forsake the love he received from God and this is spiritual adultery. The Bible often likens the relationship between Israel and God to that between a father and his child, but sometimes it likens it to the relationship between a husband and a wife who have vowed to love each other with all his/her heart.
But in the history of Israel, the Israelites often forsook the covenant of God and worshiped foreign gods. They knew about God very well who showed them many signs and wonders but they were deceived into following their desires. They accepted idols of the Gentiles and worshiped them. This idolatry was spiritual adultery (1 Chronicles 5:25).
The northern kingdom of Israel committed spiritual adultery by worshiping idols, and was forsaken by God and destroyed. But even after seeing it, the southern kingdom of Judah didn't repent but kept on worshiping idols. In the end, they were also destroyed by the Gentiles (Jeremiah 3:8).
Today we God's children are the brides of the Lord (2 Corinthians 11:2). If one has believed in the Lord, received the Holy Spirit, and calls the Lord, 'My Bridegroom,' and yet if he still loves the world and compromises with the untruth, this is spiritual adultery (James 4:4). He who betrays the Lord and commits adultery cannot become His bride and join His Wedding Banquet either.
That is why spiritual adultery is more fearful than fleshly adultery. Suppose a younger brother cursed at his elder brother and spat on him. This is a great offense, but there is a chance of the elder brother forgiving his younger brother. But if a son did it to his father, it is something so depraved that he can seldom be forgiven.
In the same way, if one goes beyond a certain limit in spiritual adultery, he won't be able to receive answers to his prayer and will be put faraway from God. Then he will be more stained with the world, commit sins to crucify Jesus Christ all over again, and go the way of death (Hebrews 6, 10).
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I hope you won't have anything to do with not only fleshly adultery but also spiritual adultery and you will only long for the truth and fill your heart with it. I pray in the name of the Lord by doing so you will adorn yourself spotless and blameless as the bride of the Lord and participate in the Wedding Banquet with joy.
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