“You shall not commit adultery.” – Exodus 20:14
Q: What is the seventh commandment?
A: You shall not commit adultery.
What does this mean?
Because we worship and love God, we should lead an innocent and good life in words and actions, and we should love and honor our spouse.
Do you know what marriage is all about? Why did God create marriage? Do a man and woman get married simply because it sounds like a fun idea to live together for the rest of their lives?
Companionship is a very important part of marriage but we know that God created marriage first and foremost to be a symbol of the loving faithfulness that Jesus has for his people, the church. In this way, marriage is not about us as much as it is about him.
This is why God commands his people to not commit adultery. Adultery is leaving your special relationship with your spouse and trying to have a similar having another special relationship with another person who you are not married to. Is this the way that Jesus treats the church? Of course not. He has a passionate love for his people alone. Because of the Holy Spirit, he will never leave them or forsake them. Because this is true, we are to model for one another this love in our marriages. If we were to commit adultery it would make Jesus look really bad.
Read Ephesians 5:22-27:
Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
- How are wives supposed to look like the church?
- How are husbands supposed to look like Jesus?
- If Jesus ever unfaithful to his wife?
- Why is committing adultery such a big deal?
Prayer
Our Father, thank you that you have given us such an amazing picture of what your love for the church looks like. May you help us to present to the world this type of love when they see our marriages. May your faithfulness be our faithfulness. May you pursuing love be our pursuing love for one another in marriage. Teach husbands to lay down their lives for their wives like Jesus. Teach wives to joyfully submit to their husband’s loving leadership. In Jesus name, Amen.