2005-01-14
Good Morning Dear Readers,
You may remember that I have written a number of times that all sin begins with breaking the last of the Ten Commandments, EX 20: 17, “Thou shalt not covet.” Those deceptively simple words can be explained in more modern language as, “Do not desire another man’s house; do not desire his wife, his slaves, his cattle, his donkeys, or anything else that he owns.” Sadly, sin has its foundations in the fiery arrows from the devil. O how the devil loves us to covet! That alone is a good reason for not doing it, but sometimes our coveting comes upon us without warning, because our minds are on something else at the time. Think of the businessman who goes to an office Christmas party with his wife and there he sees the wife of another He is instantly taken with that lady. Think of David, feeling flush and powerful one spring from the victories over the Ammonites and the siege of the city of Rabbah, after sending out his uncle, Joab, to lead the Israelites to victory. He sought some fresh air after a nap and had gone up on his roof in Jerusalem. There his eyes rested on a woman in a neighboring house taking a bath. She was very beautiful, and the devil saw his chance to bring David to coveting her [2 SAM 11: 1-2]. That was the beginning of a shameful affair, one that not only led to David committing adultery with Bathsheba and impregnating her, but also to his successful plot to murder Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah the Hittite [2 SAM 11: 4-5, 15]. The devil loves to set an evil idea in one’s mind that leads to an obsession and then gets converted to an evil action without thought to negative consequences.
Yet, we must understand that God knows the content of everyone’s hearts. There is nothing that we can hide from Him under cover of darkness, words to the contrary, or any other method mankind might conjure up. Christ, in the Sermon on the Mount in MT 5: 27-30, teaches us God’s will concerning adultery. “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But now I tell you: anyone who looks at a woman and wants to possess her is guilty of committing adultery with her in His heart. So if your right eye causes you to sin, take it out and throw it away! It is much better for you to lose a part of your body than to have your whole body thrown into hell. If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away! It is much better for you to lose one of your limbs than to have your whole body go off to hell.” Is Christ advocating self-mutilation here? In most cases, I believe He is not. Instead, what He is saying we need to rein in our enslavement to our natural temptations, replacing it with a healthy dose of self-discipline.
Let’s go back to the businessman and his wife at the office Christmas party for a minute. He is faced with two choices. He could go home and lay in his bed, dreaming of how much he would rather be in bed with the other woman that he saw than his wife. Or, he could remember Christ’s teaching and refocus his thoughts on how lovely his wife is and how blessed he is to be in a marriage ordained by God with her. In modern parlance, we call that behavior modification. Because the man in this example has true faith, he can remember God’s will expressed in LV 11: 44-45, LV 19: 2, and 1 PET 1: 16, “Be holy because I am holy.” Herein we find a beautiful example of what we learned in COL 3: 9-10, “Do not lie to one another, for you have put off the old self with its habits and have put on the new self. This is the new being which God, its Creator, is constantly renewing in His own image, in order to bring you to a full knowledge of Himself.” God knows each of us is a sinner, but He also equips the true believer to deal with his natural propensity to sin. He also expresses the love He has for the true believer by not just creating us in His own image [GN 1: 27] but also renewing us in His own image. God knows the devil is looking at every turn to tempt us into sin, but He is providing us with the spiritual weapons to battle the enemy to victory in Christ’s holy name [EPH 1: 18-20].
I would be remiss if I didn’t at least mention the possibility that the businessman in this example might not be a man of faith. Remember that faithful man [or woman] has all the armor of God found in EPH 6: 10-18 with which to fight. The person without faith has none of these, so his only choice is to give into what tempts him. What a sad picture it is to us that most people on earth don’t share faith in Jesus Christ. God also created them in His image, but they choose to reject Him. The devil, who as it says in 1 PET 5: 8 “roams around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour,” gets his chance and goes for it. Negative consequences ensue in cases of adultery, such as the breakup of marriages, the breakdown of the family unit, and other even worse sins. The breakdown of the family unit is one of the evil consequences to society, which I believe troubles our loving Abba the most. He loves little children, as evidenced in MK 10: 13-16. Seeing them grow up as “latch-key” children, learning not to have a conscience due to the lack of parental presence and loving, consistent correction, and/or being shuttled back and forth between two homes has to pain God’s heart enormously. The cost to human society of this is incalculable. In meditating over what I’ve said in this message, how can we miss the blessing we have in our faith? We can take comfort in Paul’s God-breathed words in RO 8: 28, “We know that in all things God works for good with those who love Him, those whom He has called according to His purpose.”
PRAYER: O Lord, we stand before Your throne in deep gratitude for both Your teaching on the issue of adultery and the faith You have given us. You allow us to have the ability to think ahead about the consequences of coveting and adultery. You give us clear, concise teaching through Christ’s words in the Sermon on the Mount, of Your will in these matters. You equip us to see not only the consequences of evil action, but the relationships between one evil action leading to another. Along the way, Dearest Abba, You give us encouragement to be godly and use Your knowledge of how the devil tempts us to equip us with the spiritual weapons which we can use in His name to have victory over the adversary [EPH 6: 10-18; 2 COR 10: 3-5]. How empty and useless our human spirits are, when they are not joined with the Holy Spirit! You deserve our eternal praise for the protection, wisdom, and direction that You so generously give those willing to study Your word daily and to have an active prayer life. Today, we offer You our unqualified praise for Your presence in our lives and the ways You bless us. Christ, Your only Son, died on the cross to open the way to salvation for sinning mankind. We thank You with all our hearts for that and so much more. We openly confess our sins, knowing that You are willing to hear our confession and to forgive and forget the sins for which we now repent [HE 8: 12]. As we strive to mature in our faith, we are becoming aware that Christ is alive in us through Your word and that He is with us every second of our lives no matter where we are or what we are doing. He promised us in JN 15: 7 that if we remain in Him and His words in us, we can ask for anything we want and we shall have it. You are making that desire true by causing us to make Your agenda our own. So, Dearest Father, we ask that You continue to help us be true to our marital commitments and to help us to never covet. We offer You our heartfelt love eternally. In Christ, we pray. Amen.
Next week, the Holy Spirit is directing me to discuss another very controversial subject-divorce. Once again, the Lord has made His will clear about this in the Scriptures. And thus, I am directed not only to share that, but to discuss some of the modern problems that lead to divorce and what could be done about them if we are faithfully obedient to God. No human that I have ever met can match God’s consistency and constant loving presence in my life. Truthfully, there are some that come pretty close, people like my sweet husband, Peter, for example. To be married to me for almost 28 years without complaint leads me to believe that God put this remarkable man in my life. I might also say the same things about my many dear friends from my congregation. The Holy Spirit urges me to challenge each of you to look at the spouses and friends in your own lives. See if you feel the same way about them that I do about mine. If not, ask yourself, what can you do to increase your own chances of finding people who are godly to be in your lives. My husband has always said, “you can tell a lot about a person by the people in his life.” No matter what sin-challenges a person is dealing with, he can be greatly helped out of sinful lifestyles by having godly friends around him to set an example. Many godly people will “walk beside” the sinner in his struggle to overcome sin over time, encouraging, listening, caring, and by example, leading the person in need to put the sin behind him. This takes time and patience, but God has equipped us for that. We are indeed a blessed people!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn