Christian Family Services Ministry

3-31-2023 – A Word to the Wise – PART 9

CONSEQUENCES

To step across the line and commit sins of immorality, betrayal or murder marks that person’s soul. It breaks the vessel and the purpose the Lord created for that person. Based upon repentance and faithfulness a new purpose is created by the Lord. However, the original purpose is forever gone. David’s kingdom was never the same after Bathsheba.

Perhaps the extreme consequences are more understandable when we realize that the root sin involved in adultery is idolatry. Remember that God gave sex to the man as a gift, the companionship being a reminder of God’s relationship to the man. The reminder is in a tangible form of the woman. The reminder is a living testimony to God’s way with man.

Sex for the man speaks to the most intimate feelings and is akin to worship of God. This is not a new concept. How else would Satan have been able to twist the sexual aspects of man’s being into worship of idols? Most of the ancient religions had some form of sex act as part of the worship experience. Idolatry may be defined as offering worship to anyone, to anything, or any symbol other than the Lord God Almighty. When idolatry is committed, it is destructive to the soul.

The connection between adultery and idolatry is further strengthen when ones realizes that the Bible frequently uses words like unfaithfulness and adultery to describe one’s unfaithfulness to God. How often I have heard my clients describe in worshipful tones the first sexual experience in an affair. That is why particularly for the man sex outside of marriage is idolatry. It seeks to recreate outside the marriage the gift God gave for the confines of marriage. The feelings in marriage are part of one’s worship–especially thanksgiving to the Lord. Outside of marriage, the man is performing an act of worship on the woman.

It is important to realize that the whole process from onset of sin to return to a modicum of peace is about two years. This period will be very painful for both spouses. The adulterer will experience a maze of conflicting emotions. Attempts to elicit trust by either party should not be made. All demands for fidelity will lead to anger or failure. The couple talking about what has happened and the different feelings encountered can lead to closeness if done properly. At some point the sinner must experience the pain the betrayed experiences.

What about the long term, life long consequences of adultery? What is the outcome? As with any sin when one repents and turns from evil, a new future is created. If the sin and memories are committed to the Lord then eventually the Lord Jesus will take them and turn them into a lasting blessing. Once a blessing is made, the outcome may affect three or four generations in a positive manner. If not surrendered to Jesus, the negative results in terms of sin, embarrassment, anxiety, immorality, may last to the third and fourth generations.

Moses, Peter, and Paul were all three guilty of murder or betrayal. Yet, once these lives were surrendered to God, the blessings to their generation and the generations thereafter overflowed with God’s grace. Tamar, Rahab, David, Solomon, Manasseh and others were immoral and guilty of even worse sins. Yet, it was their repentance, which paved the way for blessing upon blessing to future generations.