The issue today has become worrisome in Christendom. That is: what is the dividing line between the word of God and morality? Has the modern world, with its constant challenge against our morality and Christian ethics, been able to ship us all into a hell hole of shameful iniquity, sexual perversion and adultery? Is the constant bombardment of our fragile moral make up with sexual materials on WhatsApp, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and television been able to weaken our resistance to live a righteous Christian life? Why is adultery so common among our Christian brothers and sisters? Why are we sold out to sex? Why are we accommodating adultery in the Christian fold?
Brethren, let us delve into this problem and see God’s perspective on the matter. In Exodus 20:14, it is written: “You shall not commit adultery.” God must have realised from the beginning the full perversion of an adulterous lifestyle. It may be fun for those who are deeply enmeshed in its thrill but to God, adultery has many pincers that may lead the adulterers to death. Going further, the scripture screams in Leviticus 20:10 that: “The man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, he who commits adultery with his neighbour’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.”
Here we have to understand that the Bible is whole. We cannot pick and choose the passages that suit our hedonistic fancies. Here God is truly deadpan on adultery and leaves no room for manoeuvring. The narrative that such rule is in the Old Testament and not in the new is harmful. Christ said that he came to the world to fulfil the law of God and not to change it. After all, the Psalms and Proverbs are all in the Old Testament and we still use them daily in prayer and meditation. In some theocratic states, this rule is still being implemented – women are stoned to death if caught in adultery!
Why is adultery so revolting to God? Who does he detest it so much that he laid down death penalty for partakers? The Bible says that stolen water is sweet and that bread eaten in secret is delicious. What fuels our desire to commit adultery? Is it poverty? Is it our lack of self-control? Are we naturally wired to seek for variety? Or do we blame lack of self-control that has gotten Christians in arm lock? Why would you find another married man attractive to the point of committing sin with him? Why with a married woman?
Proverbs 6:32 expressly says that: “Whoever commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding; he who does so destroys his own soul.” Recently, I received an unbelievable WhatsApp share where it was alleged that a pastor, yes, a serial adulterer of a pastor, impregnated twenty women in his church almost at the same time. This is sexual perversion of a different kind. It can only happen in Nigeria or in Africa where our women have turned their pastors into tin God. Any wonder why we see these God of men abusing their anointing and going against the law of God on a massive scale.
Why do we take the word of God on adultery so casually believing that once we confess our sexual sin the Lord will forgive us? Why is this anti-Christ feelings so rampant around sexual sin? Can we mock God? I have seen cases where Christians are now getting married to two and three wives. One wife will be the legal wife and the other are concubines who live in rented accommodation somewhere.
Is such a man a Christian? Is this not a blatant disobedience and rebellion against the word of God? Even though the Bible teaches that the act of disobedience is like the sin of witchcraft before the Lord. Who is fooling who? We have cases where Christians have come with all kinds of evil excuses to commit adultery. Many of the excuses border on selfishness and lack of self-control. Some say that it is the devil that pushed them into the sin of adultery. Some say that it was temptation. Some blame alcohol. Some blame their friends as encouragers. Some blame their foundation. Some blame loneliness. So much endless reasons for committing adultery.
To be fair, we live in a world of sexual innuendoes and perversions of the extreme kinds. We have the lesbians coming on strong. We have the homosexuals recruiting more people into their fold. We have to grapple with a highly sexualized generation where moral borderline has been breached through dirty materials circulating in millions through the dark web, television, phones and clubs.
Even our churches are not excluded. We have Pastors’ wives wearing short bikini. Choir girls flaunting their breasts and dancing suggestively right on the altar of holiness. This is captured quite graphically in Jeremiah 5:7, “How shall I pardon you for this? Your children have forsaken me and sworn by those that are not gods. When I had fed them to the full, then they committed adultery and assembled by troops in the harlot’s houses.” What is more chilling in all this is God’s damning verdict that the sin of adultery will not be forgiven. The reason is not farfetched. Other sin is committed outside the body but the sin of adultery is committed when two bodies unite in illicit and forbidden passion.
In Proverbs 6:32-33, the Bibles states that: “But a man who commits adultery has no sense; whoever does so destroys himself. Blows and disgrace are his lot, and his shame will never be wiped away.” The earthly judgement of adultery is always harsh. The cuckooed husband may kill both the wife and the man who commits adultery with his wife. The wife also may kill the husband and the woman if he is caught in the act. And the scripture supports this judgement by declaring in Proverbs 6: 34-35: “For jealousy arouses a husband’s fury, and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge. He will not accept any compensation he will refuse a bribe, however great it is.”
If the sin of adultery is so bad that God warned that adulterers’ sin will not be wiped away, must we go on sinning in adulterous relationship? If the sin of adultery is so great and we could be killed in the act, why then do we risk our salvation and eternal damnation because of five minutes of dirty sweat? I pray for my readers who are struggling with this sin that God will deliver you in Jesus name. Happy Sunday!!!
. Deacon Oladeji writes from: ridet@hotmail.co.uk.
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