“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.” (Matthew 5:27-30 ESV)
I had just finished rewatching a two year old video talk that the Lord is having me repost today when immediately a video came up of a preacher standing behind a pulpit talking about how he had just recently gotten word about another church pastor, that this pastor had committed adultery against his wife, and the church community was shaken over the report of it. And then he talked about how today, if you sin, and you get caught, it gets plastered all over social media, if you are someone important, anyway.
And I had just finished writing a devotion on the subject of the persecution of the righteous, based off Matthew 5:10-12, and so I was reading on down in Matthew 5 looking for the subject matter that the Lord wanted me to write on next, and he had me stop at this subject of adultery. It is a subject with which I am very familiar. And it fits with the other two devotions for today (there are usually 3 a day). And it seems as though the Lord has been having me write about sexual misconduct and abuse a lot lately.
Well, the reality of it all is that spousal abuse and adultery go hand-in-hand. If one or the other of them is committing adultery against the other, the adulterers are also likely to be abusive in additional ways, such as verbally, mentally (playing mind games, trickery, gaslighting), emotionally, and perhaps spiritually and physically, too. And this can definitely include Christian persecution if one spouse is living for the Lord and if the other is still walking in deliberate and habitual sin, especially in adultery.
Now there are many ways in which a person can commit adultery, and they are not all involving physical contact with another human being. Jesus said that if we look at another lustfully (with lustful intent) that we have already committed adultery with that person in our hearts, and against our spouses (if we are married to someone else). And so he gave some very strong counsel on what may be necessary to cease from committing adultery, although I believe this is to be taken more figuratively than literally.
But here is where the problem lies, I believe. Well first of all the Scriptures teach that out of the heart come “evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.” And “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” So, if you have hatred, bitterness, anger, resentment, pride, lust, selfishness, and unforgiveness stored in your hearts, that’s what will come out.
[Luke 6:45; Matthew 15:17-20]
So, there has to first be genuine faith in Jesus Christ by which we die with Christ to sin and we are raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as slaves to God and to his righteousness. There has to be death to self and to sin and living for God in walks of holiness and righteousness, in obedience to his commands, as led by the Spirit of God, in the power of God, by the grace of God. There has to be an inner cleansing and renewal of the heart so we can now live for God.
Daily we must surrender our lives to the Lord and take up our cross and follow him in obedience. Our Christian walk has to involve daily dying to sin, self-denial, and walks of obedience to our Lord, resisting the devil, and drawing near to our Lord in full assurance of faith. If we play with temptation, we will eventually give in, and then we will want more of the same. Then the cycle begins, and we have returned to our vomit. So we must guard our hearts and minds daily and put on the armor of God.
Now, here is also where the problem lies. The “church” of today, overall (not every congregation, not every individual), in America, has embraced a cheapened form of the gospel which was taught by Jesus and by his NT apostles. This cheap grace gospel is taught by removing Scriptures from their context and making them say what they do not say if taught in their appropriate context. So, by cherry-picking certain Scriptures (taken out of context), they have a fairly new and revised version of the gospel which doesn’t require death to sin and obeying God.
So many pastors today are teaching this altered gospel message whereby they tell people they can just “pray a prayer to receive Christ,” or make a profession of Christ as Lord and Savior, and now all their sins are forgiven (past, present, and future), and heaven is guaranteed them when they die, and it cannot be taken away from them, but regardless of how they live. Even if they teach repentance and obedience (not all do), many teach them more as though recommended but not as required for salvation.
So, many professers of faith in the Lord Jesus are getting this message that they can believe in Jesus, have all their sins forgiven, and be on their way to heaven, but that how they live will not impact where they spend eternity. And then we have the internet, which has its good points (I am sharing the gospel on the internet), and then personal computers, and now smartphones (pocket computers). And a whole world of evil is now available to anyone with the press of a finger on a screen or a keyboard, and adultery is now at pandemic levels!!
So, the only way that we are going to be able to live morally pure and upright lives in this day and age is if we take God and his word absolutely to heart and we don’t dance around the verses that we don’t want to hear. We have to rid our lives and minds and hearts of all the junk that is stored up inside them which is producing evil and wicked behaviors. And then our lives must be surrendered to our Lord and committed to do his will, and we must put on the armor of God and fight the devil with Spiritual weapons.
But if you play with sin, and you choose not to take the necessary steps to insure moral purity in your lives, you won’t make it. You have to make the necessary cuts. You have to “set your face like flint” (Isaiah 50:7), and stand your ground, and remove from your lives all obstacles to your walks of faith and obedience to the Lord. You have to not take into your minds the thinking and philosophies and values of a fallen world, even within the gatherings of “the church,” but you must stand alone sometimes.
For, if you don’t, and if you play with sin, you will get burned. And if you continue living in deliberate and habitual sin, and not in walks of obedience to our Lord and in righteous living, then please know that the Scriptures teach that you will not inherit eternal life with God, regardless of what confessions of Christ you have made in your life. So, please read the Scriptures for yourself. Read them in context. And then do what we are taught to do by the Lord and by his NT apostles, and obey God always!
[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2]
Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,
Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.
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