Ten Commandments Part 14
Commandment # 6 (Protestant 7) “You shall not commit adultery” (Part 2)
On the positive
side there is the opportunity of chastity of our person. Chastity is too often thought of in terms of
abstinence. While this can be part of
it, this is not its main emphasis.
Chastity is really self mastery.
It is something for everyone, whether married or single. It is a continuing “Yes,” not a continuing
“No.” It is concerned with growing in
self control in a context of love. In
marriage, it is the “Yes” answer to the question “Will I always love you and
myself?”
The mission of
marriage is to show what love is. We
need to reclaim marriage as a vocation.
It’s not about me or you but about us.
It contains freedom harnessed by the will. The goal is not to live for inordinate
pleasure, but for each other. This is
the desire God has for us in our marriages.
Unfortunately
there are many offences against chastity.
1.
Lust – It
is an inordinate desire for sexual pleasure. It leads to the inappropriate view that sex
is only about me. It can be considered a
form of narcissism.
2.
Masterbation – focuses on one’s personal
pleasure and fantasies. It leads to
objectifying people.
3.
Fornication – sexual relationship between an
unmarried man and an unmarried woman. It
has been shown statistically that unmarried couples who live together before
marriage have much higher divorce rates.
In fact, this is the most prevalent reason for their divorce.
4.
Pornography – This is both addictive and
destructive. Statistics show that
pornographic images stay in the brain for seven years. In the age of the internet this has become a
huge problem in society. It affects both
Christians and non-Christians.
5.
Prostitution – reduces a person to only an
object of pleasure. It destroys human
dignity.
6.
Rape – an intrinsically evil act which also
treats its victim as merely an object.
You
wanted man and woman to help one another live, Lord. But I have made improper use of the power of
love which you put in me. There was
always the pressure to seek gratification on my own: to anticipate joy, to degrade love to sexual
intercourse and my partner to a thing.
Now I have lost control over my thoughts and desires; and I live among
people for whom it is just the same. The
joylessness gets worse and worse! We
deserve it, Lord, that you should let us perish in our rotten love and that we
should lose you for all eternity. We
cannot help ourselves, Lord, but be merciful and let us live faithfully
together again![1]
[1]
Lange, 36
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