Anchor My Faith

Adultery

Scripture: Matthew 5:27-28

With this lesson we begin the next section of study, which has to do with lust/adultery and divorce. Beginning with adultery, Jesus said: ^{Mt 5:27} “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’” This is the seventh commandment. As with the sixth commandment, “You shall not murder”, the Jews were only concerned with the outward act, not the condition of the heart. Jesus informs them that it is from the heart that these acts of murder or adultery are initiated.

Under the law, adultery was considered an extremely serious offense. At the time of Malachi, the Jews would weep and groan before the Lord because he no longer regarded or accepted their offering with favor. The reason given by God through Malachi was: “Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant” (Malachi 2:14 ESV). This sin of unfaithfulness affected their relationship with God in addition to violating another person and breaking the marriage covenant. A broken marriage relationship is a reflection of a broken relationship with God.

In that culture, marriages were arranged between families of the bride and groom and usually without regard to the wishes of the couple to be married. Arranged marriages was common in other cultures and continued even in America into the 1900s. An arranged marriage has the opportunity of bringing maturity into the selection process. Today marriage is more of a “Cinderella theology” in which couples get married simply because they “fell in love”. This falling in love is based primarily on feeling and when that feeling goes away, the couple is tempted to look for others to get the feeling back.

Should marriage be based on free choice or should it be arranged? That is not to be answered here, but is presented here for consideration in view of what Jesus is going to say about adultery, lust and divorce. If the seventh commandment of the Law says, “You shall not commit adultery”, then there must be judgment and a price to pay if the commandment is violated. The first cost of adultery is a broken relationship with God, as expressed by Malachi.

Many of you may say, “I would never commit adultery!”, but Jesus speaks up and says: ^{Mt 5:28} “But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” There is probably not a single person reading this that is not condemned by this statement. Can you honestly say that you have never looked at another person of the opposite sex and not had lustful thoughts?

We will end this lesson on that question and return to this statement made by Jesus in the next lesson.

Prayer

Father, in view of the sexual passions of our culture, we will need to think carefully about what Jesus says in this section of study.