“You shall not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:13).

Adultery is voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and a person who is not his or her spouse (Google Dictionary). Jesus allows that it is grounds for divorce. “But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery” (Matthew 5:32).

And as we are learning in our ongoing study of the Ten Commandments, Jesus has more to say about this commandment. “But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). (And I am quite sure that the same goes for looking at men lustfully.)

What is adultery? We read the dictionary version above, but what is adultery in God’s eyes? Adultery is unfaithfulness. Faith is what binds us together. Adultery is unfaithfulness. It is cheating on our spouse; it is cheating on a covenant made before God. If faith binds us together, adultery tears us apart.

God created marriage. He holds marriage in such high regard that he uses marriage as a metaphor to describe the Church. John Piper describes it this way:

Ephesians 5:31 is a quotation of Genesis 2:24, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one.” Then Paul adds in verse 32: “This is a great mystery, and I take it to mean Christ and the church.”

The union of man and woman in marriage is a mystery because it conceals, as in a parable, a truth about Christ and the church. The divine reality hidden in the metaphor of marriage is that God ordained a permanent union between His Son and the church. Human marriage is the earthly image of this divine plan. As God willed for Christ and the church to become one body (Galatians 3:28, 1 Corinthians 12:13), so He willed for marriage to reflect this pattern—that the husband and wife become one flesh.

Just as the Apostle Paul used marriage to describe the union of Christ and the church, Old Testament writers used adultery as a metaphor for idolatry and unfaithfulness to God. In the book of Hosea, “God brings to life a consistent picture used throughout the Old Testament.  In this picture, the LORD is the husband of Israel, and their passionate, chronic attraction for idols was like the lust of an adulterer.  His people were as unfaithful as a prostitute was.” (Blue Letter Bible, David Guzik commentary on Hosea).

Throughout the Bible, God makes it very clear that he created the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman as the foundation of our society. It is also clear that this covenant was designed after the beautiful covenant between Jesus and his church. It is thrilling to imagine that glorious wedding celebration described by John in his Book of Revelation:

Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: “Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.) Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And he added, “These are the true words of God.” (Revelation 19:6-9)

This subject is hard. Many of us find ourselves with a history of unfaithfulness. Perhaps a spouse has been unfaithful to us, or perhaps we have been unfaithful, either to a spouse or to God, or both. Praise God that he is a God of forgiveness.  Let us take comfort, indeed relief, because of His everlasting faithfulness to us, from the words in Joel 2:23-27; 32:

Be glad, people of Zion, rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given you the autumn rains because he is faithful. He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before. The threshing floors will be filled with grain; the vats will overflow with new wine and oil. I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten—the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts, and the locust swarm—my great army that I sent among you. You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you; never again will my people be shamed. Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the Lord your God, and that there is no other; never again will my people be shamed…. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the Lord has said, even among the survivors whom the Lord calls.

Do you find that being faithful, whether to God or to your spouse, is a challenge?

• Being faithful requires intention: “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 34)

• Being faithful requires active obedience: “Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” (Philippians 1:27)

• Being faithful requires prayer: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7)

• Being faithful is one of the fruits of the spirit, meaning that it can only be accomplished with the help of the Holy Spirit: “The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.” (1 Thessalonians 5:24)

Faithfulness brings rewards. Let us be faithful to our spouses, to our families, to church, to God.

In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. (1 Peter 1:6-7)

And let us rejoice in the knowledge that God is always faithful to his people. We can rely on his faithfulness to us. We can take joy in his faithfulness to us. Jeremiah wrote: “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22-23).

Because of God’s faithfulness to us, we can sing that wonderful hymn “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.”

In Christ,

Judy

“May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.” Psalm 19:14