I'm prepping for an upcoming ABF (Adult Bible Fellowship...aka Sunday School) class on the seventh commandment - "You shall not commit adultery" Exodus 20:14. I have been studying God's Word on this topic, and I need to wrap some things together in my brain. Lord help me!
This commandment flows from the great and first commandment - "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your soul" Matthew 22:37. It also expands the second commandment - "Love your neighbor as yourself" Matthew 22:39. In light of these two commandments that summarize all of God's moral law, I will try to develop an argument why God forbids a man or woman to commit adultery.
Something that I will always remember from one of my wife and I's marriage counseling classes was a lesson about priorities in life. Our pastor developed a rationale for how our first priority in life is our personal relationship with Christ. Our second priority must be our relationship with our spouse. Everything else falls under these two priorities. Oh, the truth in this rationale!!! I think that lust or adultery is first a violation of our fellowship with God and second a violation of our fellowship with our spouse. Tonight I only have the energy to speak on the first. Lord willing, by the end of the week I can get around to the second.
The desire of our sinful nature to lust after another person epitomizes our selfishness. God's will is that we desire Him above all.
Psalm 38:23-28
23 Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand.
24 You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
27 For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
28 But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.
Oh...how I wish that these verses would dig deep! "And there is NOTHING on earth that I desire besides you" v. 25. Combining this Psalm with Colossians 3:5, I can understand where Paul is coming from. "Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry." When we live by our earthly desires and give in to the temptations of lust, we set up idols before God. Oh, that mortification would come to our sinful nature! How I wish that every day from this day forward we could exclaim with Joseph, "How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" Genesis 39:9. Praise God that "My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." Psalm 38:26. Praise God that "We are weak, but You are strong." 1 Corinthians 4:10. Praise God "For when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Corinthians 12:10. Oh, that we could cling more and more tightly to the cross of Christ so that we might obey His commands through the power of the Holy Spirt and that we might glorify His holy name.
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