Don’t Mention It – The Seventh Commandment

Don’t Mention It

Exodus 20:14; Deuteronomy 5:18

“You shall not commit adultery.”

Ephesians 5:11, 12

Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.

Are you exposing or indulging?

John Updike was one of the great writers of our generation – at least, in terms of his ability to generate readers through his novels, criticism, and poetry. Updike claimed to be a Christian, and, for this reason, certain Christian critics had a problem with his writing, which was very sexually explicit, and not always within the boundaries of marriage. Confronted with this apparent contradiction, Updike responded that he didn’t think he was writing anything before God that God didn’t already know about. In one sense he might have been trying to “expose” the shallowness of sex-for-fun, at the same time he was seeking to advance the sanctity of sex within marriage. I’ll give him that, I suppose, although we have to admit that, whenever we expose ourselves to sexual activity in novels or films we are walking a slippery watershed. We may be able to appreciate the use of a popular medium to expose the foolishness of trying to find fulfillment in mere sex. After all, the Bible does as much (albeit much more discretely than contemporary literature or film). But it is equally likely that we may find ourselves on the wrong side of that slippery slope, where “taking part in the unfruitful works of darkness” creates lust and adultery in our hearts. Let the reader or viewer beware.

Is it your practice to read or view sexually explicit material? How do you keep from falling down the wrong side of the slippery slope into adultery?

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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.