Skip to main content

Adultery


It will save you also from the adulteress, from the wayward wife with her seductive words, who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God. For her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead. None who go to her return or attain the paths of life. (Proverbs 2:16-19) 

          It’s been said that rape isn’t about sex. I’m not one hundred percent sure that’s one hundred percent correct but it is enough correct that as I read today’s passage, it came to me as a pattern. Rape isn’t about sex. Neither is adultery. Adultery is neither about sex nor about love, especially the sort of adultery described in the passage. It’s about disloyalty. It’s about exercising the power to hurt someone without touching them. 
          Adultery is treason, just like every other sin, but perhaps more so or more obviously so. Most thieves don’t promise the people they rob that they will be loyal and true to them. A lie told when one had taken a vow to be honest is considered worse than a lie told when no such vow was taken. Adultery breaks a most sacred trust. It breaks a most binding vow. 
          I think this is one of the reasons Solomon spends a lot of time talking about adultery in Proverbs. His family knew about adultery. As a result of his parents’ adultery, his elder brother died. Solomon may not have committed adultery with another woman in a legal sense, but he joined his wives in the worship of other gods, thereby committing adultery against God. 
          Scripture describes marriage as two becoming one. Adultery rips the one into two again. It performs an amputation. Most of the time, a limb that is amputated dies. If the so-called surgeon who performs the amputation isn’t skilled and careful, both the body and the amputated limb die. What can you truly say to the person with whom you commit adultery – you want to attach  your corpse to them, even temporarily? 
          I have to agree with Solomon – we need to stay away from adulterers and adulteresses. We need to avoid them like the plague, because they carry spiritual disease, if nothing else. It just makes sense. In other words, it’s wise.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

Listen To Him

              The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him . (Deuteronomy 18:15)           Today, we switch from Jesus’ claims of “I am” to prophecies made about Him. My Bible platform is starting in Deuteronomy. I’d start in Genesis, where we would learn that the one who would save us would be a descendant of Eve (Genesis 3:15), of Noah (by default), Abram and Sara(Genesis 12:1-3). Isaac (Genesis 17:19), Jacob (Genesis 25:23), Judah (Genesis 29:8), and David (II Samuel 7:12-16). There were also references to a new covenant (Jer. 31:31-34; Ezek. 36:22-32). In addition, there were prophecies about when and where the prophet/Messiah would be born and what would happen to him.           Of course, naysayers will claim that Jesus’ life was retrofitted or reverse enginee...
Post a Comment
Read more