Loving People: Part 3

Commandment 7: You shall not commit adultery


Like murder, adultery hurts many people.  Adultery hurts the person with whom you cheated.  You and that person are now living a lie and living with guilt.  You are causing strain and, most likely, the eventual end of your and the other person’s marriage.  You are hurting your children; you are hurting the other person’s children.  You are hurting their families.  You are hurting their loved ones.  You are teaching your children that one person does not physically satisfy another person for life.

And again, like the commandment on murder, Jesus goes a step further.  "You have heard the commandment that says, "You must not commit adultery" But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Mt. 5:27-28).  People don’t cheat out of nowhere.  It comes from the thoughts that we have.  

By the way, it’s funny to me how we hesitate to talk about lust as much as something like anger.  Have you gotten angry?  Of course.  Have you had impure thoughts about another person?  No, of course not.  

To love others, we need to also see them as God’s children, not as objects of desire.Lust goes on in the mind and in the heart.  To break the power of lustful thoughts is to begin to see all people as the beloved children of God that they are, not as objects of our own desires. Jesus calls us to stop using other people created by God and loved by God in our own impure ways.  Maybe the best way to do this is to tell ourselves whenever we have these thoughts about another person, “This is a beloved child of God.”

This is a child of God.
Created by God.
Loved by God.