Anticipate The Traps – The Seventh Commandment

Anticipate the Traps

The seventh commandment

Exodus 20.14; Deuteronomy 5.18

“And you shall not commit adultery.”

Proverbs 1.17

“For in vain is a net spread in the sight of any bird…”

Watch where you walk.

So how do we practice the kind of self-watch over our hearts that can help them to function as they should and keep us from falling into adultery? To begin with, to paraphrase an old saw, “Get your mind in gear before you engage your feet.” Solomon’s pithy comment to his son is exactly to the point. If you know what can tempt you to commit adultery in your heart, don’t go there. The problem, of course, is that our society has become so loose in its views about sexuality that even the most everyday things are salted with sexual suggestiveness – commercials and billboards, fashion and speech, pop culture, all kinds of relationships and exchanges between men and women. Make up your mind that some temptation to lust is going to get “in your face” most days of the week. Know the form it can take, anticipate it, and prepare your heart to resist it. If you indulge this temptation, you will weaken your heart’s resolve to obey the Law of God. Gradually, you will wear down your resistance. When that happens your heart, which has already betrayed you, will teach the fine art of rationalization to your mind and lock your conscience in the closet of your soul. At that point the train is on the tracks, the boiler is huffing and puffing, and you’re dangerously ready to rev toward a bridge-out ending, somewhere ‘round the bend. If you know what tempts you, deal with it before you confront it, so that when it comes, you can avoid the net and maintain the path of goodness.

Are you thinking that this is all a little silly? That there’s nothing wrong with a little innocent flirting or flight of fantasy? Who says? The Lord Jesus?

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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.