Adultery, Divorce and Pornography

14 “You shall not commit adultery.

Ex 20:14 (ESV)

32 He who commits adultery lacks sense; he who does it destroys himself.

Proverbs 6:32 (ESV)

Just being honest for the most part this one sin is so often overlooked into day’s world or that we have become very callous to it. You see with a divorce rate at over 50 % both in and out of church we often consider marriage to be something dispensable and if this one does not workout I will just find someone else to marry. There are lots of reasons why divorce occurs and this is not even the biggest reason, yet when adultery strikes it comes in and strikes directly at the heart of those involved.

In the Old Testament and Jesus life time it was common to stone a women to death caught in adultery. We see Jesus deliver a woman from such a fate in scripture; John 8. I have always wondered though what did they do with the man or men she was caught with? Just as question to consider. You see adultery was seen differently than. Today we are equal opportunity adulteries just as many women leave their husbands and families to pursue the self-gratification that comes from an affair. Either way it is a sin and we must look at the implications it will and does have on our families and our society. I know this is a touchy subject; it is an issue that we must understand how it affects our walk and witness as Christians.

Jesus stated in Luke 16, “17 But that doesn’t mean that the law has lost its force. It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the smallest point of God’s law to be overturned.18 “For example, a man who divorces his wife and marries someone else commits adultery. And anyone who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.”

Luke 16:17-18 (NLT)

God’s laws still applies to our lives.  Jesus only allowed one reason for divorce:

 8 He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9  And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”

Matt 19:7-9 (ESV)

Divorce and adultery go hand in hand. Yet in today’s world there is an even larger threat to the sanctity of the home and that is the 13 billion dollar pornography business especially if we apply Jesus teaching to our lives as we should as Christians.

27 “You have heard the commandment that says, ‘You must not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.29 So if your eye—even your good eye —causes you to lust, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell

Matt 5:27-29 (NLT)

Having fought with this addiction in my own life for the better part of 25 years I understand its power to destroy. The surprising fact is it does not just affect men; women can and are addicted to it also but not at the same rates. It is a very destructive addiction because what it does is diminish the sensitivity of persons towards one another. It takes something that God created with a purpose and places unrealistic ideas into our minds. We begin to have expectations about what we should expect when we have interactions with those of the opposite sex. It makes things like premarital sex and homosexuality to be alright even though the Bible teaches against both. It can affect relationships and marriages by creating unfulfilled desires whether they are right or wrong. A true statement about adultery and pornography is that you cannot undo what you have done. Pornography invades your mind and can control how you treat and respond to others. Most serial rapist started off looking at pornography and when it was no longer able to meet their personal desires they worked to fulfill them in real life. Ted Bundy testified to his own start from this very sin and it led to the death of 30 plus women. I know you believe what you do in private is your business I used to think so to till it almost cost me everything. Today we see it more and more the news shows us that no one is immune to this. It affects our children and it will be the end of our country if we do not take a stand against it. Have a blessed day!

If you struggle with an addiction to pornography I promise you God can deliver you from it. You just have to be willing to trust Him with it. Don’t wait it might be what is causing all your troubles.