Thoughts on Adultery

I think this term has been misunderstood for a while now. I admit I didn't quite understand what adultery was until I really thought and prayed and read about it in the Bible.

The fact is, adultery is rampant. So, what is it?

Adultery is having sex, or even an emotional affair, with someone who is not your spouse. The obvious "adultery" is the cheating on your spouse type of thing. However, if you're not married, you're off the hook, right? Wrong. Premarital sex is adultery, in my eyes. God has a husband or a wife in mind for you- wait for them. If you don't, then you have committed adultery. It's pretty simple. If you aren't having sex with the person that is your husband or wife, then it's adultery. So, if you're not married, you have no business having sex with anybody. Period.

The foggy area is this whole emotional affair stuff. If you have a "best guy friend"- and a husband, that's kind of weird. If you tell this guy friend stuff that you don't tell your husband, that's probably not good. Just think of your husband or wife having a friend of the opposite sex that knew stuff about your spouse that you didn't know. Would you feel betrayed? The bottom line is, you and your spouse are one flesh, you are ONE, and you are to work together to further God's purposes. Anything that gets in the way of His glory- well, you might be commiting adultery. Read: Pornography- yeah, that's adultery alright. You know the song, "Oh be careful little eyes what you see." Well, there is a fine Casting Crowns song called Slow Fade and the line I love goes like this: "The journey from your mind into your hand is closer than your thinking." In other words, it does not take long for those bad thoughts to become bad actions that you are sure to regret.

See, adultery is a sin against God. While it is obviously a grievous sin against your spouse, God made it a law, and therefore, by breaking it, you disobey God, so your sin is against Him. When you put it in that perspective, you will see your marriage as something different. The marriage isn't to make YOU happy and to make YOUR life better. It's to glorify God. Once you get that into your head, you can start living the "married" life that God has planned for you. And when you are going in the direction of God's plans, the world opens up for you.

So, love your husbands. Love your wives. Love them as God loves them. Make it a service to Him that you work through your fights, your disagreements, whatever. Check out the book of Corinthians and the Gospel of Matthew for some other interesting insights into this thing called marriage, and the complex sin that is adultery.