New Soul, New Life – The Seventh Commandment

New Soul, New Life

The seventh commandment

Exodus 20.14; Deuteronomy 5.18

“And you shall not commit adultery.”

Ezekiel 36.26, 27

“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”

Only God can re-shape our souls.

It is a primary work of the Spirit of God to give us hearts inclined to God and obedient to His Law. Only because He is at work within us, to enable us to will and do of God’s pleasure (Phil 2.13), do we have any hope whatsoever of being able to recognize adultery as it begins to appear in our souls and deal with it, promptly and efficiently, so that it does not come to expression in our lives. But how does God’s Spirit teach us His Law, and thus improve the condition of our souls and our walk with Him? Certainly that begins with our sitting down before the Law of God, reading, meditating, and studying in it so that we can understand the mysteries of loving God and neighbor encoded there. If there is little or no time in our day for meditating on God’s Law, there will be little or no resources available to God’s Spirit for teaching us to walk in the paths of righteousness. How then will we be able to resist the temptations to commit adultery that come at us during the day? Whatever we are doing with our time that keeps us from this all-important discipline, it’s just not worth it. New minds, new hearts, new consciences, and new lives require new disciplines and daily, fresh insights from the Word and Spirit of God.

Would you say that your present practice of reading and meditating in God’s Word is sufficient? Is there room for improvement? What will have to change in your life in order to improve your time in God’s Word?

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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.