You shall not commit adultery.
What does this mean?
We should fear and love God so that we lead a sexually pure
and decent life in what we say and do, and husband and wife love and honor each
other.
In Genesis chapter 4, Adam and Eve obeyed God. In Chapter 3
they had disobeyed God. They had disregarded his command and ate the fruit of
the tree in the center of the garden. But now they, with repentance and faith,
obeyed God. The Lord God had said, “Be
fruitful and multiply.” They obeyed him. “Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she
conceived and bore Cain . . . And again, she bore his brother Abel” (Genesis
4:1). “Adam knew his wife.” That is a pure and decent way of saying it. They
followed the 6th Commandment, even though it hadn’t been written
down yet in any Bible or on any stone tablets. God’s law is inscribed on the
hearts of all men and women. Adam and Eve understood clearly that the
commandment of God against adultery is a command for husband and wife to love
and honor each other. So in knowing each other, loving and honoring each other
and having children together they obeyed God. They obeyed him because of his
law.
They also obeyed him because of his gospel. God had made a
promise that they had heard and believed. God promised them a descendant of
theirs, a seed that would grow from their family, would save them -- that the
serpent, that old evil foe, would bruise his heal. But the Savior would crush
the serpent’s head.
It's impossible for us now to imagine what it must have been
like for Adam and Eve. All the rest of their life they were living with this
memory, struggling with the reality, that they had paradise and they lost it
because they sinned. They went through their days longing for redemption, for
salvation, for a new life. And in faith and hope they held on to that promise
of the Seed of their marriage and family, the descendant who would come to
crush the serpent’s head and all his works and all his ways. So they had
babies. And it seems as though Eve like many other pious faithful mothers
coming after her for generations, would wonder and hope, is this child to be
born the one promised? It took thousands of years of waiting, but then Jesus
Christ was born of Mary. And there was glory to God on high and on earth peace,
goodwill toward men.
As we sing in the hymn, “Built of the Rock the Church shall
stand, Longing for rest everlasting,” so Adam and Eve and all Old Testament
believers were longing for a Savior, “Could this be the Promised One?” They
would ask. And that is not a bad way for faithful people to live—longing for
the Lord and the life everlasting. We kinda do that too, we believe that Christ
will come on the last day. And we are ready for that to be any day, because we
will greet him with rejoicing. So every day we could ask ourselves, “Is today
the day?”
Longing for the Lord’s salvation, Adam and Eve had babies with
the promise in mind that one of their children, grandchildren, great grand
children or somewhere down the line, the Savior would be born. In the meantime,
they lived together as faithful husband and wife, as devout parents to their
children, trying to raise them up as best they could.
As Cain and Abel grew up, they learned the things the children
must learn, how to walk, how to talk, how to tend the crops, how to care for
the livestock – and significantly how to worship the Lord. When both boys
brought offerings to the Lord, it is evident that their parents had taught them
about the Lord. There were no preachers around that time. Adam and Eve were the
preachers. There were no Sunday school teachers. Adam and Eve taught their
children the lessons. This family would sit down to pray, to learn their
lessons about God, to serve God with their offerings, the first fruits of their
labors.
I know, it’s hard to think of them as a nice, sweet family,
because we just heard again how things turned out. Cain killed Abel, the first murder,
actually the first human death. But God didn’t blame their upbringing, or their
dysfunctional home life. He doesn’t say, Adam, Eve, what have you done. The
responsibility is all Cain’s, “Where is your brother, Abel?” It was Cain’s sin.
God had just warned him about it. “Why are you angry, and why has your face
fallen? . . . Sin is crouching at the
door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”
What a shame! Such a nice family. And see how those kids
turned out. Adam was heartbroken. Eve was heartbroken.
Christians are heartbroken when their loved ones don’t keep
the commandments, like this sixth one for example. Adultery is a selfish, inconsiderate
act that hurts everyone involved. Divorce hurts. It hurts every relative and it
hurts all society. It breaks Christian parents’ hearts when their kids don’t
keep the 3rd commandment and stop going to church. We suffer the
most from those sinners who are closest to us.
And as I listen to people talk about the heart-breaking
situations in their families, I hear a great deal of shame. I suppose it’s
shameful because we have this assumption that good Christian homes should consistently
produce good Christian people who always make the best choices and live-long
and prosper. When things go bad, it’s a shame. Is it that you are longing for
forgiveness for the bad decisions and bad actions someone else is making? Know
and believe that the blood of Jesus Christ has removed your sins and covered
your shame.
So What’s the use? Why even remember the 6th
commandment. How can we honor marriage and the family when our own lives are so
marred by sin and death. Are our families any better than those of the unbelieving
world around us?
No, we cannot brag about the goodness and righteousness in
our homes and in our families. But we can boast in the Lord who has done good
things, and continues to give good blessings.
We must continue to speak to each other and to speak out to
the world about the will of God expressed in the 6th Commandment. He
wants husbands and wives to love and honor each other. He warns about the sins
of adultery and sexual perversion that have devasting consequences. We can never
give up on the ideal of marriage and family – especially because it shows us
the love of Christ.
When we know what a good, honorable, love-filled home is, we
learn a priceless lesson on the love of Christ. Ephesians 5 -- 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.
Adam, created in the image of God, was to love like God
loves. He was given Eve to love and adore. As Adam loved Eve he was teaching a
lesson to her and to his sons about Christ’s love and salvation. We’re not going
to give up on the truth of marriage and the pure and decent love and honor of
one man and one woman. Despite the heartbreaks and shame, we’re not going to
give up, because Christ who loves us His church, will not give up on us.
Amen.
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