Attention attention Single and Married People!
The seventh commandment
"Thou shall not commit adultery"
is addressed to all of you and not only to married ones!
It is wrong to think that the commandments of our Creator are intended to
be imposed manu militarily on the mankind. As already said several times, our
Father is not thinking in this way at all, on the contrary, He is preaching
everyhwere the freedom to think and to act: with freedom as a background,
He GAVE His commandment as a gift specially conceived to bring happiness to
people!
Man is free to accept them or to refuse them.
The Creator
in his great kindness does not want to make differences between anyone and this
explains why this seventh commandment condemning adultery has all its value for
anybody, married ones, single ones or unmarried couples who do not want to be considered
as married. This is what we invite you to understand in the continuation of
this article.
The Wedding.
Before
tackling the subject of adultery, let us speak about the wedding. The wedding
was not invented by man. The Creator is the One who introduced this concept and
He explained to us why in Genesis 2, verses 18 to 24:
"18And Yehoah Elohim
said, "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper
comparable to him." 19Out of the ground Yehoah Elohim formed
every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to
see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature,
that was its name. 20So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds
of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a
helper comparable to him.
21And Yehoah Elohim caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he
slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place.
22Then the rib which Yehoah Elohim had taken from man He made into a
woman, and He brought her to the man.
23And Adam said:
"This is now bone of my bones
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman,
Because she was taken out of
24Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to
his wife, and they shall become one flesh."
Our Creator
knows that absolute loneliness is bad and His Word confirms that by examples.
Let us take
the case of Elijah the Tishbite who found himself completely alone and
insulated in the Kingdom of Israel (also called Kingdom of the North after the
schism); this loneliness was the result of his faith in Yehoah:
22Then Elijah said to the people, "I alone am left
a prophet of Yehoah; but Baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty men. (I Kings 18: 22).
But despite
the support he got from Yehoah, this human loneliness was at some time so hard
to stand that Elijah requested to die; let us read this dramatic moment in I
Kings 19: 4-7:
"4But he himself went a
day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree.
And he prayed that he might die, and said, "It is enough! Now, Yehoah,
take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!"
5Then as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel[1]
touched him, and said to him, "Arise and eat." 6Then he
looked, and there by his head was a cake baked on coals, and a jar of water. So
he ate and drank, and lay down again. 7And the angel of Yehoah came
back the second time, and touched him, and said, "Arise and eat, because
the journey is too great for you."
Our Creator
instituted the marriage because He did not want us to be absolutely alon.
How is
a wedding according to the Lord.
Many weddings
today are decided according to human own desire without asking the question, if
they are believers: Is this wedding in
agreement with the wishes of the Lord?
This
question is very important because in the beginning, the Creator was the One
who created and gave Eve to Adam for wife. Adam received her and did not have
to choose it! Another biblical example of such a wonderful gift is the one of
Isaac; here too, Yehoah did choose the wife for this man who walked with him:
"1 Now Abraham was old,
well advanced in age; and Yehoah had blessed Abraham in all things. 2So
Abraham said to the oldest servant of his house, who ruled over all that he
had, "Please, put your hand under my thigh, 3and I will make
you swear by Yehoah, the Elohim of heaven and the Elohim of the earth, that you
will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among
whom I dwell; 4but you shall go to my country and to my family, and
take a wife for my son Isaac."…
10Then the servant took ten of his master's camels and
departed, for all his master's goods were in his hand. And he arose and went to
51Here is Rebekah before you; take her and go, and let
her be your master's son's wife, as Yehoah has spoken." (Genesis 24: 1-4, 10-14 and 51)
Elohim does
not make any difference between anyone and Isaac and what He did for Isaac, He
will also do it for His Son Jesus-Christ. Indeed, Jesus-Christ will also marry
with the bride who will be chosen for
him by His Father! Jesus will not, unlike many today, go and look for his wife
by himself. He will wait and hope in His Father's choice. This wedding, if we
are authorized to take part in it, will be breath-taking by its splendour:
"1 Now I saw a new heaven
and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also
there was no more sea. 2Then I, John, saw the holy city, New
Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from Elohim, prepared as a bride adorned for
her husband. "…
9 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls
filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying,
"Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife." 10And he carried me away in the
Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy
14Now the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were
the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. 15And he who talked
with me had a gold reed to measure the city, its gates, and its wall. 16The
city is laid out as a square; its length is as great as its breadth. And he
measured the city with the reed: twelve thousand furlongs. Its length, breadth,
and height are equal. 17Then he measured its wall: one hundred and
forty-four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of an angel.
18The construction of its wall was of jasper; and the city was pure gold,
like clear glass. 19The foundations of the wall of the city were
adorned with all kinds of precious stones: the first foundation was jasper, the
second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, 20the
fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl,
the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth
amethyst. 21The twelve gates were twelve pearls: each individual
gate was of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like
transparent glass.
The Glory of the New Jerusalem
22 But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord Elohim Almighty and the Lamb
are its temple. 23The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to
shine in it, for the glory of Elohim illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.
24And the nations of those who are saved, shall walk in its light, and
the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. 25Its
gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there). 26And
they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. 27But
there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an
abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of
Life."
(Revelation 21: 1-2 and 9-27)
Jesus-Christ
will not choose this so beautiful wife but she will be offered to him by His
Father. His Father and His Father only will have imagined and conceived her as
Paul tells us in his epistle to the Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 10:
"10For he waited for the city which has foundations,
whose builder and maker is Elohim."
This is
confirmed by the own words of Jesus-Christ
in John 17: 6:
"6 "I have
manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They
were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word."
It means
that the Church in the broad meaning of this word will be given by the Father to
Jesus-Christ as his future wife!
The Law
of the marriage.
Elohim
created the marriage with really simple laws like all His other laws:
"3The Pharisees also came
to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce
his wife for just any reason?"
4And He answered and said to them, "Have you not read that He
who made them at the beginning "made them male and female,'[ 5and
said, "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be
joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? 6So then,
they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what Elohim has joined together,
let not man separate."
7They said to Him, "Why then did Moses command to give a
certificate of divorce, and to put her away?"
8He said to them, "Moses, because of the hardness of your
hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not
so. 9And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual
immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who
is divorced commits adultery." (Matthew 19: 3-9)
The goal and
the essential law of the marriage is
To become only one flesh starting from only one man and only one woman!
These are
the words as they were pronounced by our Creator.
By the way, all this is extremely logical if
we remember how Eve was brought to the world! Indeed, at the beginning after Adam
was created, the first woman was made from the flesh of Adam since she was made
at the beginning from one of his coasts. It should thus be expected that the
vocation of men and woman in the couples is to become at the end only one
flesh.
But let us open
here a bracket: there is much more than that if we try to extend the concept to
the spiritual world, the world to come which will give us hopefully access to
eternity. The bible reveals in many places that the Church is the body of Jesus-Christ,
Jesus himself being the head of that body. Moreover, it is prophesiesed in the book
of the Revelation of John that the skies will reveal in the near future the New
Jerusalem prepared like a bride for her husband. We must prepare ourselves to
understand that this spiritual spouse of the Lamb will be created, as it was in
the beginning with Adam, from a part of the spiritual body of Jesus-Christ, this
part being the Church! Let us close here this bracket about this marvellous
time to come.
Throughout His
Word, Yehoah gives a series of rules to be followed if we want a good wedding. For
instance Deuteronomy 7, verses 1 to 4, says that it is not good to engage
yourselve with somebody who has a foreign belief:
"1 "When Yehoah your
Elohim brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many
nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the
Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations
greater and mightier than you, 2and when Yehoah your Elohim delivers
them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall
make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. 3Nor shall you
make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor
take their daughter for your son. 4For they will turn your sons away
from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of Yehoah will be aroused
against you and destroy you suddenly."
The reason
of this law is based in the unity in the marriage in the sense that the couple
must also become one with Yehoah. This is why the wishes made by a woman before
her wedding can be cancelled if necessary (Numbers 30: 2, 11-17):
"2If a man
makes a vow to Yehoah, or swears an oath to bind himself by some agreement, he
shall not break his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his
mouth….
11and her husband heard it, and made no response to her
and did not overrule her, then all her vows shall stand, and every agreement by
which she bound herself shall stand. 12But if her husband truly made
them void on the day he heard them, then whatever proceeded from her lips
concerning her vows or concerning the agreement binding her, it shall not
stand; her husband has made them void, and Yehoah will release her. 13Every
vow and every binding oath to afflict her soul, her husband may confirm it, or
her husband may make it void. 14Now if her husband makes no response
whatever to her from day to day, then he confirms all her vows or all the
agreements that bind her; he confirms them, because he made no response to her
on the day that he heard them. 15But if he does make them void after
he has heard them, then he shall bear her guilt."
16These are the statutes which Yehoah commanded Moses, between a man
and his wife, and between a father and his daughter in her youth in her
father's house."
Yehoah also
insists on the fact that a marriage should be an opportunity of prolonged rejoicings
for the new couple:
"5
"When a man has taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war or be charged
with any business; he shall be free at home one year, and bring happiness to
his wife whom he has taken." (Deuteronomy
24, verse 5)
All these
rules show how much Yehoah wishes to see an atmosphere of union around the
marriage. With this in mind, we will understand
better the dangers of adultery!
What
is exactly adultery?
Adultery
consists in any thought or action that separates what Yehoah linked together or
what was linked to Yehoah. Thus there are two kinds of adultery, the second one
dealing with single people, or not married people. Meanwhile both types of
adultery go hand in hand, i.e. the one who commits one kind of adultery
automatically commits the second kind of adultery too!
But let us
speak first of the more obvious adultery of married people. Worthwile to note
here that this type of adultery can also be committed by a foreign person to the couple. Let us read
about this in Deuteronomy 22, verses 23-26:
"23"If a young woman
who is a virgin is betrothed to a husband, and a man finds her in the city and
lies with her, 24then you shall bring them both out to the gate of
that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman
because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he humbled his
neighbor's wife; so you shall put away the evil from among you.
25"But if a man finds a betrothed young woman in the
countryside, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who
lay with her shall die. 26But you shall do nothing to the young
woman; there is in the young woman no sin deserving of death, for just as when
a man rises against his neighbor and kills him, even so is this matter."
This shows
that sometimes the two members of the couple are innocent. A very famous
example of this kind of adultery is the one committed by David against his faithful
General Uriah, the Hittite, when he raped his beautiful wife
Bath-Sheba. Let us read two verses in II Samuel 12: 9 and 13:
"9Why have you despised
the commandment of Yehoah, to do evil in His sight? You have killed Uriah the
Hittite with the sword; you have taken his wife to be your wife, and have
killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon….
13So David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against Yehoah."
And Nathan said to David, " Yehoah also has put away your sin; you shall
not die."
David not
only raped her but he planned also the murder of Uriah to steal his wife. Later
on, David repents and Yehoah accepted to pardon him so that he could escape the
death penalty which is incurred for sins like this one:
"10"The
man who commits adultery with another man's wife, he who commits adultery with
his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress, shall surely be put to
death." (Leviticus 20: 10).
But if David
is saved, it is because his sin is one of those that Jesus-Christ took on himself
while agreeing to be killed for all the sins committed by all the mankind.
Another important detail to observe is that the word of the Lord will always remember
that Bath-Sheba is the wife of Uriah and not the one of David as we can read it
in Matthew, chapter 1, verse 6:
"6and
Jesse begot David the king.
David the king begot Solomon by her who had been the wife of
Uriah."
But adultery
is more often committed by one of the members of the couple. Jesus-Christ warns
against the adultery often caused after abusive repudiations pronounced by
husbands who repudiate their faithful wives (Matthew 5: 31-32):
"31
"Furthermore it has been said, "Whoever divorces his wife, let him
give her a certificate of divorce.' 32But I say to you that whoever
divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit
adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery."
Jesus-Christ
goes even further when one reads Matthew, chapter 5, verses 27 to 28:
"27 "You have heard
that it was said to those of old, "You shall not commit adultery.' 28But
I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already
committed adultery with her in his heart."
How many among us are condemnable if we desire sexy stars,
having seen their films and their pictures in newspapers where all is made with
sophistication to encourage our lust! Jesus encourages us to fight and overcome
this kind of weaknesses.
During all
the period of decline, right before the fall of big empires, morality of people
has no more brakes and adultery instead of being banished becomes part of the common
practice of the majority who follow the
public example of leaders and famous people; so was the case for the Jews who
were living just before the fall and the destruction of their kingdom by
Nebuchadnezzar as we can read in Jeremiah, chapter 29, verses 20 to 23:
"20Therefore hear the
word of Yehoah, all you of the captivity, whom I have sent from
21Thus says Yehoah of hosts, the Elohim of Israel, concerning Ahab the
son of Kolaiah, and Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, who prophesy a lie to you in
My name: Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of
The same is
occuring today, when Babylon the Great is appearing with her way of life full
of prostitutions that she spreads all over the world. But I warn you, if you
remain adulterous and if you do not repent, you will never have access to the
Kingdom of our Creator at all:
"9Do you not know that
the unrighteous will not inherit the
You read
well and it is essential and vital not to try to clear yourself by any satanic
reasoning! No, much better, on the contrary, to adopt an attitude full of humbleness
and to recognize what is bad in us, even if we are living very deeply in sins:
it is never too late and it is never a lost case!
Adultery
with respect to our Father and Creator!
We will
discover now a second approach of the adultery which will also be addressed to single
people. This type of adultery consists in building a separation between the creation
and its Creator. This adultery is the one described in length with the history
of Jerusalem, as shown in Ezekiel 16:
1 Again the word of Yehoah came to me, saying, 2"Son
of man, cause
6"And when I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own
blood, I said to you in your blood, "Live!' Yes, I said to you in your
blood, "Live!' 7I made you thrive like a plant in the field;
and you grew, matured, and became very beautiful. Your breasts were formed,
your hair grew, but you were naked and bare.
8"When I passed by you again and looked upon you, indeed your
time was the time of love; so I spread My wing over you and covered your
nakedness. Yes, I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you,
and you became Mine," says Yehoah Elohim.
9"Then I washed you in water; yes, I thoroughly washed off your
blood, and I anointed you with oil. 10I clothed you in embroidered
cloth and gave you sandals of badger skin; I clothed you with fine linen and
covered you with silk. 11I adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets
on your wrists, and a chain on your neck. 12And I put a jewel in
your nose, earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head. 13Thus
you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen,
silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate pastry of fine flour, honey, and oil. You
were exceedingly beautiful, and succeeded to royalty. 14Your fame
went out among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through
My splendor which I had bestowed on you," says Yehoah Elohim.
15 "But you trusted in your own beauty, played the harlot
because of your fame, and poured out your harlotry on everyone passing by who
would have it. 16You took some of your garments and adorned
multicolored high places for yourself, and played the harlot on them. Such
things should not happen, nor be. 17You have also taken your
beautiful jewelry from My gold and My silver, which I had given you, and made for
yourself male images and played the harlot with them. 18You took
your embroidered garments and covered them, and you set My oil and My incense
before them. 19Also My food which I gave you--the pastry of fine
flour, oil, and honey which I fed you--you set it before them as sweet incense;
and so it was," says Yehoah Elohim.
20"Moreover you took your sons and your daughters, whom you
bore to Me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your acts of
harlotry a small matter, 21that you have slain My children and
offered them up to them by causing them to pass through the fire? 22And
in all your abominations and acts of harlotry you did not remember the days of
your youth, when you were naked and bare, struggling in your blood.
23"Then it was so, after all your wickedness--"Woe, woe to
you!' says Yehoah Elohim-- 24that you also built for yourself a
shrine, and made a high place for yourself in every street. 25You
built your high places at the head of every road, and made your beauty to be
abhorred. You offered yourself to everyone who passed by, and multiplied your
acts of harlotry. 26You also committed harlotry with the Egyptians,
your very fleshly neighbors, and increased your acts of harlotry to provoke Me
to anger.
27"Behold, therefore, I stretched out My hand against you,
diminished your allotment, and gave you up to the will of those who hate you,
the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd behavior.
28You also played the harlot with the Assyrians, because you were insatiable;
indeed you played the harlot with them and still were not satisfied. 29Moreover
you multiplied your acts of harlotry as far as the land of the trader,
30"How degenerate is your heart!" says Yehoah Elohim,
"seeing you do all these things, the deeds of a brazen harlot.
31 "You erected your shrine at the head of every road, and
built your high place in every street. Yet you were not like a harlot, because
you scorned payment. 32You are an adulterous wife, who takes
strangers instead of her husband. 33Men make payment to all harlots,
but you made your payments to all your lovers, and hired them to come to you
from all around for your harlotry. 34You are the opposite of other
women in your harlotry, because no one solicited you to be a harlot. In that
you gave payment but no payment was given you, therefore you are the
opposite."
35 "Now then, O harlot, hear the word of Yehoah! 36Thus
says Yehoah Elohim: "Because your filthiness was poured out and your
nakedness uncovered in your harlotry with your lovers, and with all your
abominable idols, and because of the blood of your children which you gave to
them, 37surely, therefore, I will gather all your lovers with whom
you took pleasure, all those you loved, and all those you hated; I will gather
them from all around against you and will uncover your nakedness to them, that
they may see all your nakedness. 38And I will judge you as women who
break wedlock or shed blood are judged; I will bring blood upon you in fury and
jealousy. 39I will also give you into their hand, and they shall
throw down your shrines and break down your high places. They shall also strip
you of your clothes, take your beautiful jewelry, and leave you naked and bare.
40"They shall also bring up an assembly against you, and they
shall stone you with stones and thrust you through with their swords. 41They
shall burn your houses with fire, and execute judgments on you in the sight of
many women; and I will make you cease playing the harlot, and you shall no
longer hire lovers. 42So I will lay to rest My fury toward you, and
My jealousy shall depart from you. I will be quiet, and be angry no more.
43Because you did not remember the days of your youth, but agitated Me with
all these things, surely I will also recompense your deeds on your own
head," says Yehoah Elohim. "And you shall not commit lewdness in
addition to all your abominations.
More Wicked than
44 "Indeed everyone who quotes proverbs will use this proverb
against you: "Like mother, like daughter!' 45You are your
mother's daughter, loathing husband and children; and you are the sister of
your sisters, who loathed their husbands and children; your mother was a Hittite
and your father an Amorite.
46"Your elder sister is
48"As I live," says Yehoah Elohim, "neither your
sister Sodom nor her daughters have done as you and your daughters have done.
49Look, this was the iniquity of your sister
51"Samaria did not commit half of your sins; but you have
multiplied your abominations more than they, and have justified your sisters by
all the abominations which you have done. 52You who judged your
sisters, bear your own shame also, because the sins which you committed were
more abominable than theirs; they are more righteous than you. Yes, be
disgraced also, and bear your own shame, because you justified your sisters.
53"When I bring back their captives, the captives of Sodom and
her daughters, and the captives of Samaria and her daughters, then I will also
bring back the captives of your captivity among them, 54that you may
bear your own shame and be disgraced by all that you did when you comforted
them. 55When your sisters,
An Everlasting Covenant
60 "Nevertheless I will remember My covenant with you in the
days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.
61Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed, when you receive your
older and your younger sisters; for I will give them to you for daughters, but
not because of My covenant with you. 62And I will establish My
covenant with you. Then you shall know that I am Yehoah, 63that you
may remember and be ashamed, and never open your mouth anymore because of your
shame, when I provide you an atonement for all you have done," says Yehoah
Elohim."'
This is
another kind of adultery, very similar to what we see daily with the
politicians who are either in charge of the government or are eager to take the
power as soon as possible. This kind of adultery is also the one of people ready
to prostitute themselves to the extreme simply to get a job or to be promoted.
With this kind of adultery, honesty does not have any more room and the truth
is manipulated on each occasion where it obstructs.
We must
reject this adultery with all our strength and a good mean to do so is simply not
to commit adultery in the couple, if we are married.
The Bible reveals
that the Church of our Creator will become the wife of Jesus-Christ. This is
the reason why we are asked, men and women, if we are married, to adopt an
attitude of fidelity and submission similar to the one described by Paul in his epistle to the Ephesians, in
chapter 5, verses 22 and 23:
"22 Wives,
submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23For the husband is
head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of
the body."
The human
couple should form only one single flesh in order to become able later to also form one single body with
the Church and with Jesus-Christ who is expected to become her husband. Jesus-Christ
left us about this topic a beautiful example with his Father and his disciples.
This explains why anyone who seeks or acts in order to separate and to divide
the Church is also comitting an adultery. He is acting against the plan of his
Creator as stated by Jesus-Christ who says that unity in his body is a source
of belief for the rest of the world. Let us read that in John 17, verses 20 to
23:
"20 "I
do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through
their word; 21that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me,
and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that
You sent Me. 22And the glory which You gave Me I have given them,
that they may be one just as We are one: 23I in them, and You in Me;
that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have
sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me."
There is
also a wonderful kindness of our Father who planed with His laws a way for the
sinner to escape the death penalty if he decides to repent. Indeed, as we have read
earlier, Jerusalem is unfortunately a well established adulterous mistress whom Jesus however loves
and whom He still wishes to marry and save. But Paul shows us in Romans 7: 1 to
4 that Jesus, thanks to his courageous death when He offered his life by love,
will delete the adulterous past of Jerusalem:
"1 Or do you not know,
brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion
over a man as long as he lives? 2For the woman who has a husband is
bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies,
she is released from the law of her husband. 3So then if, while her
husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but
if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress,
though she has married another man. 4Therefore, my brethren, you
also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be
married to another--to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear
fruit to Elohim."
However, a member
in the couple can also be a danger for a believer if, his or her way of life
encourages the partner to separate from the Creator. A separation from our
Creator is, as we saw, committing an adultery. Let us read the councils given
by Paul about this in I Corinthians 7,
verses 10 to 16:
"10 Now to the married I
command, yet not I but the Lord: A wife is not to depart from her husband.
11But even if she does depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled
to her husband. And a husband is not to divorce his wife.
12But to the rest I, not the Lord, say: If any brother has a wife
who does not believe, and she is willing to live with him, let him not divorce
her. 13And a woman who has a husband who does not believe, if he is
willing to live with her, let her not divorce him. 14For the
unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is
sanctified by the husband; otherwise your children would be unclean, but now
they are holy. 15But if the unbeliever departs, let him depart; a
brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases. But Elohim has called us
to peace. 16For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your
husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife?"
In brief,
Paul is asking before all to remain united in the couple because this is the
wish of our Father. However if one of the members of the couple prevents the
other one from following the will of the Lord or if he encourages to rebel
against Him, better to undertake separation steps rather than to commit an adultery with respect
to the Father.
What
about single!
The question
raised at the beginning of this reflexion remains complete, since the ten
commandments are intended for everyone, men and women! How then can we apply this
seventh commandment to single people? Jesus, that some call Yahshuah, addresses
particularly to the single people in Matthew 19, verses 10 to 12; note that the
context before is dealing with the concept of adultery:
"10His disciples said to
Him, "If such is the case of the man with his wife, it is better not to
marry."
Jesus Teaches on Celibacy
11 But He said to them, "All cannot accept this saying, but
only those to whom it has been given: 12For there are eunuchs who
were born thus from their mother's womb, and there are eunuchs who were made
eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the
kingdom of heaven's sake. He who is able to accept it, let him accept it."
Paul also
addresses to single people in I Corinthians 7, verses 7 to 9:
"7For I wish that all men
were even as I myself. But each one has his own gift from Elohim, one in this
manner and another in that.
8But I say to the unmarried and to the widows: It is good for them
if they remain even as I am; 9but if they cannot exercise
self-control, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with
passion."
According to
these writings, some, either by the circumstances or voluntarily, are unmarried
and they are advised to remain so. But all of them are expected by faith to
become a part of the future wife of Jesus-Christ, the Lamb. With this in mind,
the single people should not commit adultery as described in Revelation 2, verses
22 to 23:
"22Indeed I will cast her
into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation,
unless they repent of their deeds. 23I will kill her children with
death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and
hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works."
The single
people must also follow the example of Joseph, who was not married at the time
of this account in Genesis 39, verses 7 to 12:
"7And it came to pass
after these things that his master's wife cast longing eyes on Joseph, and she
said, "Lie with me."
8But he refused and said to his master's wife, "Look, my master
does not know what is with me in the house, and he has committed all that he
has to my hand. 9There is no one greater in this house than I, nor
has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then
can I do this great wickedness, and sin against Elohim?"
10So it was, as she spoke to Joseph day by day, that he did not heed
her, to lie with her or to be with her.
11But it happened about this time, when Joseph went into the house
to do his work, and none of the men of the house was inside, 12that
she caught him by his garment, saying, "Lie with me." But he left his
garment in her hand, and fled and ran outside."
In the same
way, any single person must resist and possibly flee even the prostitute who
would offer herself for free, this prostitute being possibly a church or an
organization at the service of the Prince of this world, Satan. Indeed linking yourself
with such people or organizations, if you are a beliver, means commiting
adultery because you are linking yourself with the wife of another, even if the
other is Satan. We do not have the right to do so if we respect the law of our
Creator.
One day, we might find ourselves in the place Joseph and our only way
to escape will be to flee Babylon the Great, the Prostitute, who will also wish
that we go to bed with her:
"4And I
heard another voice from heaven saying, "Come out of her, my people, lest
you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues." (Revelations 18: 4)
Courage, Brethren and Friends!
Do not commit any adultery according to all the aspects covered above, even
if it is in thought, because it would be a transgression of the commandments given
by our Father for our good!
Adultery is the way of division and hate, so keep in mind that the wish and
plan of our Creator is to link with love:
"9For
the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery," "You shall
not murder," "You shall not steal," "You shall not bear
false witness," "You shall not covet," and if there is any other
commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, "You shall love
your neighbor as yourself." 10Love does no harm to a neighbor;
therefore love is the fulfillment of the law."
(Romans 13: 9-10)
Then courage once again and hold firm with your strength,
knowing that our Creator is ready to provide help in eliminating by himself any
defect we would not have been able to destroy alone: this will be made thanks to His
Holy Spirit:
"11
And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep;
for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. 12The
night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of
darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. 13Let us walk properly,
as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in
strife and envy. 14But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no
provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts."
(Romans 13: 11-14)