REFUSING ADULTERY

PROMISES TO KEEP

Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another man’s wife? For a man’s ways are in full view of the Lord, and he examines all his paths. Proverbs 5:20-21

An epidemic of staggering proportions is taking place in America. I’m not thinking of AIDS. I’m thinking of adultery.

It’s an epidemic that for the most part used to afflict only those outside the body of Christ.

No longer. This epidemic has not only found its way inside the church, but has wormed its way to the highest echelons of church leadership.

There’s something strange about this epidemic other than its rolling virtually unchecked through the body of Christ. What is strange is that we don’t call it treason. We have developed a more refined and sophisticated term.

Adultery has become an “affair.” When a man leaves his wife and children for another woman and acts as impulsively as an aroused junior high kid on his first date, it’s not an “affair.” It’s adultery…an affair.

That word has sort of a nice, light, airy ring to it. Like quiche. It certainly isn’t a judgmental term like adultery. The word affair is fluffy and non-threatening. Affair is to adultery what quiche is to pot roast.

When I was a kid, I used to go to a fair. We would have a great time eating cotton candy, riding the ferris wheel, and playing games on the arcade. When you went to a fair, you left all the responsibilities of normal life behind, at least for a few hours. Life was a lot of fun at a fair.

Maybe that’s why we call adultery an affair. It’s leaving behind your responsibilities. But let me say something about real men that I failed to mention earlier. Real men don’t have affairs because real men are responsible. Real men keep their commitments, even when their personal needs are not being met the way that they would hope, even when they are disappointed in their wives for some reason.

And it is precisely the time when we need to be on our guard more than ever.

We have seen too many in recent years who have preached righteousness in the pulpit while practicing unrighteousness in some hotel rooms. We have seen too many who have publicly advocated righteousness with tremendous fervor but have privately practiced immorality with even greater intensity.

Righteousness must not only be found in our pulpits, but in our homes.

The home is the church in miniature, and every Christian father has been appointed pastor of his own home. Christian men, whether they are leading in the church or in their home, must seek after righteousness.