You shall not commit adultery. This is a great common sense Law given by God for our benefit. Is there anything else that destroys love, trust, relationship, feelings, and family quicker and faster than adultery? If it is not discovered, can a person ever have peace again with themselves wondering at any moment when the transgression will be found out...perhaps a lover scorn will re-enter my life like in the movies and cause havoc? There is no good that can come from adultery. For the moments of lust and pleasure come a lifetime scar for the children of a marriage broken, for the spouses it creates havoc on the finances if they divorce and must support two households. Guilt and hurt, a broken covenant before God, embarrassment before family and friends, and perhaps a job lost are but a few consequences.
In Matthew's Gospel (5:28) Jesus tells us that whoever looks on a woman with lust has committed adultery with her in his heart. (this means you also ladies) Again, as with the commandment of murder, Jesus increases the Law to our thought life. It is the Spirit of God who searches the heart and knows our thoughts. Adultery is born and nurtured in the heart. We can harbor these thoughts from a distance with co-workers or friends and if we are not careful, the thoughts will be put into action with a drink after work, or a conversation that takes a relationship to a deeper level...before you know it, the act has been consummated and there is "nothing left but the crying."
The age in which we live attacks this commandment and our senses at every turn. TV, music, and movies glorify adultery, premarital sex, and every other sin against the body one can think of on a regular basis. Even the print media and advertisers are selling sex with their products on a regular basis. With this "eye candy" every where you look, and every time you turn on the TV and click the remote, it is not long before all God's values have been eroded and we are desensitized and have accepted what we see as normal and not sin. If we have become accepting of what society thinks of sex, we have drifted to far from God's Word and need to re-evaluate our position. As always, it is not God who has to change for us, but we who need to change.
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As a mother of 4 young children, your last lessons have really touched home. I have struggled with trying to teach my 3 boys not to have their anger turn into violence and my 10 yr old girl to not let the media dictate how she feels about herself. It is so difficult with all the movies, commercials and, most of all, video games to teach our children what is really important and to treat each other with respect. It is even more difficult because their friends may not share the same values as we do. Some of our neighborhood kids are unsupervised during the day (9 yr olds) and can play violent video games, eg. Grand Theft Auto. Some of what they learn from the games and videos comes out when they play with my kids. I love to hear them say, "That is not kind behaivior and if you don't stop, I won't play with you." We send our children to St. Als and it is nice to have the values we are teaching at home, reinforced at school.
ReplyDeleteI think you and all of us have witnessed what happens to young people who have grown up with the TV or any other technological device as the babysitter for the formative years. The values of these people are skewed and there is such a lack of respect, civility, and just plain human decency that society has a significant crack in its foundation. Jesus calls us to be the hope of the world no matter what we see going on around us so we must do just that. Follow Jesus and defend those values and keep reinforcing the values you have written about. It is important for your daughter to understand that her self-worth does not come from clothes, ipods, or looking like Beyonce, but from the inherant dignity that God has given the human being.
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