The A Word

The A Word
Words of Faith 12-21-2022
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy © 2022
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
Faith Fellowship Church - Melbourne, FL
www.faithfellowshipweb.com
<>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <><

Exodus 20
[14] "You shall not commit adultery.

Loving God and neighbor means honoring the vows of marriage. There is no closer neighbor than one joined in the one-flesh union between a man and woman called marriage. Loving your neighbor means honoring this covenant in your own home and in the homes of the community.
The seventh commandment deals with the most egregious sin against the marriage union: adultery. Adultery breaks the marriage vow through sexual infidelity. The Hebrew verb "to commit adultery" can be used of either men or women. Adultery is defined as voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and a partner other than the lawful spouse.
In Scripture, adultery is distinguished from fornication, which is sexual intercourse outside of or before marriage. The punishment for adultery was death (Deut 22:22), while the penalty for fornication or the seduction of a virgin was an offer of marriage or money (Exod 22:16-17; Deut 22:23-29). While this sounds terribly oppressive to the female, it was an ancient way of defining the gravity of such an offense and how it disturbs the course of the family.
The English and Latin words for adultery come from the root meaning adulterate, which means to pollute or make impure by improper ingredients. This tells us a great deal. In the Scripture, the sin of adultery was viewed as a violation of pollution of another person's property. A spiritual, emotional, and biological impurity was introduced that could significantly harm health, family, lineage, and inheritance. But adultery was also a moral offense against God (Gen 20:9, 39:9). It is a sin that selfishly breaks the commands to love God, neighbor, and self.
The seventh commandment is directed toward protecting the sanctity of the home. "Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral" (Hebrews 13:4). The family is the fundamental building block of society. The marital vow is a holy commitment that should not be violated by sexual unfaithfulness under any circumstances.
It is striking that the same Hebrew word for adultery is also used to describe apostasy, or falling away from God to worship idols. The same sense of betrayal and pollution was conveyed when Israel strayed from the Lord at various times.
Jesus declared that adultery was also a matter of the heart, mind, and body. The betrayal of covenant vows begins in the mind and heart long before it is acted upon physically. Jesus said that even looking upon another person lustfully is a betrayal in the heart of marriage vows. "You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matt. 5:27-28). Exactly when an inadvertent "look" lingers to the point of becoming "lust" could be the subject of considerable debate. Jesus did not enter into such a debate. Instead, He exhorted a radical separation from those things and places that would cause a person to lust (Matt. 5:29-30).
So how do we respond to these warnings? Of course, the strongest answer is to build the strongest of marriages. Adultery is the abyss of sin and betrayal against marriage. Our goal is not simply to avoid adultery. Setting this as a goal focuses on the wrong direction. Our goal in marriage is to surrender to one another in reverence before Christ. Our goal is to love one another sacrificially (Eph. 5:21 ff.). A marriage consistently marked by such love is adultery proof.

Father God, I give my vows of marriage to You. Even if those vows are long in the past or yet unspoken, I give them to You that Your blessing and protection would be around the covenant of marriage. I pray for strength and fidelity in the marriages of those I love and especially among those who lead and teach. In Jesus' name.

<>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <><
© Jeffrey D. Hoy 2022
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy - Faith Fellowship Church (EFCA)
2820 Business Center Blvd.
Melbourne, Florida 32940 (321)-259-7200
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
SUBSCRIPTIONS - To receive the Words of Faith devotion five days a week, send an e-mail message addressed to join-words-of-faith@hub.xc.org. To stop receiving Words of Faith, send an e-mail message addressed to unsubscribe-words-of-faith@hub.xc.org. The daily devotion and archive are posted at https://www.faithfellowshipweb.com/blog
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Words of Faith devotion is published five days a week by E-mail, excluding Federal holidays. Please feel free to forward this devotion to a friend who might be blessed by this devotion. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the New International Version (R) of The Holy Bible. Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Words of Faith (c) 1997, 2022 Jeffrey D. Hoy. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to forward this copyrighted material or use portions of it with appropriate notation of the source for non-profit purposes.