Passing Away – Or Getting Brighter? The Seventh Commandment

Passing Away, or Getting Brighter?

The seventh commandment

Exodus 20.14; Deuteronomy 5.18

“And you shall not commit adultery.”

1 John 2.15-17

“Do not love the world or the things in the world…For all that is in the world – the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions – is not from the Father but from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires…”

Adultery is a deadly indulgence.

I think we can agree that our world has become trapped in the snares of adultery in all its sordid forms. The cavalier attitude toward sex and sexuality, which is everywhere in evidence, is a sure sign that the world is passing away, and even that this adulterous generation may be in some kind of moral death throes. The light of Christ is advancing against the darkness, which recedes before its growing brilliance (1 Jn. 2.8). Adultery eats away at the soul, compromises loyalties, and cheapens what God created as beautiful and good. But God has placed us like lights in a dark world, to shine the beauty and goodness of God into the ways of unbelief and death, and to show by our obedience to His Law the way to righteousness, peace, and joy in the Spirit – the way to the Kingdom of God (Rom. 14.17). Every day you will face this same choice: side with the darkness, which is passing away, or side with ever-growing light of Christ.

Pray

Lord, I want to contribute light to my neighbors. I do not want to add to the darkness of our age; so help me to deal with the ever-present temptation to commit adultery – if only in my heart – so that Your light and truth may shine more brightly in me every day.

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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.