Bible Studies

We Have All Been Involved In Spiritual Adultery Part One

by Doug Laird 
12/20/19
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We Have All Been Involved In Spiritual Adultery

Part One

As far as marriage is concerned, there is no evidence that the rank-and-file Hebrews had any difficulty understanding what God meant when He included adultery as one of the prohibited activities when He gave Moses the Ten Commandments.

 “You shall not commit adultery (Exodus 20:14 NASB).”

Nevertheless, it may have raised a few eyebrows some 1300 years later when Jesus taught that one could commit adultery without there even being any physical contact or verbal communication between the individuals involved.

“But I say that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matthew 5:28 NASB).”

As Psalms 23:7 teaches, whatever thoughts we entertain in our hearts reveals the true person that we are.

There is perhaps no greater feeling of personal disappointment or betrayal than to learn that one’s marital partner has been become unfaithful.

But in this article, we are going to examine another form of adultery that is spoken of in Scripture.

In this type of adultery God is the one that is personally offended, and it is born again believers who are the adulterers/adulteresses.

 “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility towards God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God (James 4: 4 NASB).”

One becomes a James 4:4 friend of the world when he/she chooses to think, to act, or to otherwise engage in activity that is contrary to what God desires. In doing so, the wandering disciple engages in “one night stands” or in “ongoing affairs” with the people or the things promoted by devil’s world. These “one night stands” and “ongoing affairs amount to spiritual adultery in one’s personal relationship with the Lord.

The phrase, “one night stands” in the realm of spiritual adultery refers to sin that we commit from time to time that we tend to think little of, but never the less are expressions of our unfaithfulness in our relationship with the Lord.

How so? Jesus taught that if we love him then we will obey him (John 14:15).

According to James 2: 10, there is no such thing as a “little” sin. Some sins may seem relatively minor to us, but our argument fades when one considers it took the Work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross to atone for it.

The first thing that many who are caught being involved in a one night stand scenario in the marital realm will do is to say to the one he/she offended was that it didn’t mean anything to them, and/or that they never wanted to hurt anyone.

Born again believers will often rationalize their spiritual unfaithfulness to God, using the same line of thought.

The phrase “ongoing affair” in the realm of spiritual adultery refers to sin that takes place over a period of time and/or has become a lifestyle. The common rationale or self justification for such “affairs” is an unfulfilled “need” that one believes he/she has.

His or her perceived need may be for him/her to retaliate for a wrong or an injustice that he or she has suffered.  It may be his/her perceived need to fulfill a desire in response to a weakness in his or her (Matt. 7: 24-27) soul structure.

A weakness in one’s soul structure is an area of thinking or behavior that is the result of ignorance (not knowing) or rejection of what the Word of God has to say.

God (Phil 4:19) has promised to supply all that we need, but not all that we want.

If the perceived need would cause us to think or to do anything that runs contrary to Word of God requires, then the “need” is not a part of the plan of God and He is not obligated to fulfill it.

Such desires can come from our own, self-centered, sin nature, or from a person or thing that promote what the devil's world has to offer (1John 2: 15, 16).

“Do not love the world not the things in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh (sin nature) and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life (look what I have) is not from the Father, but it from the world (1John 2: 15, 16 NASB italics mine).”

Revelation 2:4 speaks of born again believers abandoning their first love for God.  They do so when they put self, other people, or things, ahead of the God or the things of God. Such abandonment is an act of spiritual adultery.

Whatever/whoever occupies one’s mind the most throughout the course of any given day is the one to whom or what one has made his top priority.

Focusing on God and/or the things of God for an hour once a week hardly makes God or the things of God one’s top priority.

Do the math! There are 168 hours in every week. 1 out of 168 is less that 1%!  That leaves more than 99% of one’s post salvation spiritual life still to be addressed for which we are going to be called upon to give an account (2Cor. 5: 10). Discipleship is a 24/7 lifestyle.

Religion can be the source of adulterous activity. To this extent, when asked if one is a “religious” person, the appropriate response for an advancing disciple will be to say, “I certainly hope not.”

Such a response may open a door of opportunity for the advancing disciple to explain the difference between Christian religion (that is the product of Man) and Christianity that has come from God.

Christian religion is all that so-called Christians do (or refrain from doing) in order to make and/or to keep them right with God.

Christianity is all about placing one’s full trust and confidence in what God has done (John 3: 16/John 19: 30), God is doing (John 15: 5), and what God is going to do for the people of faith.

Here in the Church Age, the people of faith are those who have been born again (John 3: 5, 7).

Scripture speaks of adulterated gospel messages WITHIN the Christian Community at large.

These adulterated gospel messages have been around since the very beginning of the church age.  Paul refers to the promotion of same as being the work of demons (Galatians 3:1/1 Timothy 4: 1).

An adulterated gospel message is one that takes the focus of attention away from exclusive faith in the Person and/or in the atoning Work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and promotes other means for one to either obtain, finish the work, or to retain salvation. These adulterated gospel messages are the roots from which false doctrines and the religious traditions of men (Mark 7: 7) grow.

Embracing such alternative and/ or additional means to obtain or to retain salvation is it an act of spiritual adultery. By our actions, we are saying that faith in the Person and in the Work of the Lord Jesus Christ is not enough.

Spiritual adultery is in view whenever a person, place, or thing is given the place or priority that belongs to God alone in the life of a born-again believer.

Romans 3: 23 reminds us that Fallen Man has never ALWAYS loved the Lord with ALL of his heart, with ALL of his soul, with his entire mind (Matt. 22: 37).

We will not all get involved in marital adultery, but we all have our "one night stands” and “ongoing affairs” in the realm of spiritual adultery.

We have (or will) all placed ourselves, our interests, other people, and/or other things in the place that is reserved for God and the things of God.

End of Part One