7. Adultery
Hide Holding, coordinator of the Calgary Family Service Bureau’s counseling division, describes an affair in this way:
An affair is often an attempt to find a little bit of paradise on the side, pursuing the belief that if one just finds the right sexual partner there will be instant happiness and everything will fall into place. An affair is often able to fulfill this myth until it itself becomes a relationship that has to be worked at and looked at in a long-term light. Seen in this way “paradise” soon becomes a prison.
Proverbs 6:23-29 For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life: 24 To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman. 25 Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids. 26 For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread: and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life. 27 Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? 28 Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned? 29 So he that goeth in to his neighbour’s wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent.
See: Prov 5:1-23; Prov 6:23-29
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Adultery
Probably no story better
Probably no story better illustrates how the sweet, stolen water of adultery turns invariably sour than the story of Camelot. In this epic tale, the relationship of King Arthur and Queen Guenevere is trespassed upon when Arthur’s most renowned and trusted knight Lancelot gingerly slips his toe across the marital boundary. It started with a look — an innocent look, without premeditation or evil intent. But it was a short, slippery step from a look to lust, from infatuation to infidelity. The look eventually led to a touch. The touch sometime later led to a kiss. The kiss, to adultery. And adultery, to tragedy.
Proverbs 9:13-18 A foolish woman is clamorous: she is simple, and knoweth nothing. 14 For she sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city, 15 To call passengers who go right on their ways: 16 Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: and as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, 17 Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. 18 But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell.
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Adultery
A Child asked his father, “Daddy, what does it mean when it says, ‘Thou shalt not commit ? Returning from Sunday School one day, where the Ten Commandments had been the topic, our young son agriculture’?” There was hardly a beat between the question and my husband’s smooth reply: “Son, that just means that you’re not supposed to plow the other man’s field,” an answer satisfactory to both of them.
Exodus 20:14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.
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Adultery
Humor: You Call That Adultery?
As children’s pastor, I listened as a fourth-grade Sunday school teacher shared a concern. Completing a quarter’s lessons on the Ten Commandments, he had asked the kids, “What is the hardest Commandment for you to keep?” to which most of them responded, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” We couldn’t understand why fourth graders would find that command a problem until a mother quizzed her son on what he thought committing adultery meant. Without blinking, the boy replied, “Thou shalt not sass back to adults.”
Proverbs 23:22 Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.
See: Ex 20:14; Lev 19:32; Pr 23:22.
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Adultery
Forgiveness Is Better than Divorce
We’ve made adultery grounds for divorce. In actuality it’s grounds for forgiveness.
Matthew 19:8 He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.
Ephesians 4:32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.
Colossians 3:13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
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