Demeaning, Destructive, Insulting – The Seventh Commandment

Demeaning, Destructive, Insulting

Exodus 20:14

“You shall not commit adultery.”

Apart from its honorable use in marriage, all other expressions of sexual gratification are abominations and depravity.

That will sound prudish and Puritanical to our free-wheeling generation, but it’s what the Bible teaches.  The various civil laws that elaborate the seventh commandment forbid everything from lust, pornography, and voyeurism to rape, pre-marital sex, homosexuality, bestiality, and sexual abuse in marriage.  All these practices are demeaning to the human soul and destructive of social order, not to mention insulting to the God Who, in His infinite wisdom, prohibits them all.

It won’t do trying to rationalize any of these, or to make room for them by claiming changing social conventions or extenuating circumstances. God’s commands are clear; either we keep them or we put ourselves–dangerously–above the Law and its all-wise Lawgiver.

If this is so, why is there so much sexuality–in pop culture, advertising, fashion, and just about everywhere else–in our society?  How’s a believer to stand up against that onslaught?

Daily meditation in the Law of God helps us along the path of holiness, righteousness, and goodness (Rom. 7:12). Order your copy of The Law of God, a compilation of the Mosaic Law for contemporary believers, by going to www.MyParuchia.com, point your browser to “Publications,” then click on the drop-down option, “Waxed Tablet Publications.”

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore.

T.M. Moore is editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Editor’s note: The use of a translation other than the Authorised Version in an article does not constitute an endorsement in whole or in part by The Christian Observer.