# 7. 2017 Dev. Mt. 5: Adultery. Read verses:27-30. The purpose of these devotionals is to draw closer to God by memorizing selected passages of Scripture. Further, to view the passage in context and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living with family, friends and others. All passages are taken from the NIV.
Matthew 5:28 “But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart”.
What Jesus tells us here may be the most ignored precept by both men and women. It turns the thinking of adultery upside down. Adultery is usually understood as a physical act with someone other than one’s spouse. Jesus is telling us that adultery begins in our thoughts turning both women and men into objects, something less then fully human.
It is difficult to reconcile Jesus’ precept with the reality of modern life, not that this kind of thinking about people in that way is a new thing. Since the fall, the beauty of sexuality is an adulteration of God’s original intention for sex given to Adam and Eve, it is part of the order of creation found in Gen 2: 24 “That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.” Sex is meant to be enjoyed and celebrated in the context of marriage, one man and one women! Male and female is part of the image of God giving couples the privilege of participating along with God to create new life and are given the awesome responsibility of raising children to know and love Jesus.
Today, God’s precept is politically incorrect and borders on hate language. For some Christians today, Jesus’ words do not hold true any longer sexually, everything is accepted, sex is considered a right. For followers of Jesus sex is a privilege and there is no way around that precept. Paul raises the stakes for believers and condemnation for unbelievers in Eph. 5:31 “for we are members of his body. 31 ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.” What Paul is saying to us is that our sexual relations, not the act but what leads up to it: complete love, absolute commitment and total surrender one to the other is what mirrors the love of Christ for His people. Raising our marital relations on to a spiritual level that is difficult to understand (“a profound mystery”) and completely lost on non believers. Add to that having children and the responsibility of raising them.
So what is the answer? Given secular society today where the emphasis is on being attractive in every way, people dress that way and act that way: entertainment, advertisements, provocative dress, we are in a sexually charged society and that is considered normal, even healthy. The answer is that we must recognize our own culpability in our thoughts about sexuality before our thinking can be corrected. We thank God for His mercy and ask Jesus to extend His grace to us. In this area every man and woman must ask God for forgiveness and to keep us close to Jesus Christ.
Paul in Philippians 4:8-9 gives us a solution: “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you”. Praise be to God!
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Heavenhigh 