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The Seventh Commandment

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 13, 1916

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 93, No. 19.

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The Seventh Commandment

By Milton C. Wilcox

The Law of God — No. 12

The Seventh Commandment

MILTON C. WILCOX
The seventh word of the great decalogue, engraved by the finger of God upon tables of enduring rock, and sure to meet us again in the great judgment day, is,—
“Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery”
Neither time nor space will be taken to draw the fine distinction between adultery and fornication. Both root in the same soil; both are transgressions of the seventh commandment; both mean unlawful relationship between man and woman.
Some sins are more talked about than committed. With adultery it is probably the reverse. It has been prevalent at least since the days of earliest history. It was connected with idolatry from the beginning, and sanctioned by the religion of nature worship. It takes one of the strongest, most fibrous and tenacious holds upon flesh-and-blood humanity of any transgression of the decalogue.
The positive side of the law of relationship between the sexes is holy and universally beneficial. All the legitimate ties and blessings of human affection grow out of its fruitful soil. Perverted, it becomes a fruitful curse, a magazine of trouble.
God made man, and God made man’s complement in woman. Man was not complete without her. The very symbolismimpresses upon the devout believer the proper relationship of man and woman. God did not make woman from the feet of man, lest man should say she was to be trampled upon, or should bow at his feet. He did not take her from man’s head, lest she should assume to lord it over her husband. But God took flesh and bone from man’s side, near his heart, that it might be seen that God’s design was that they should be companions, standing side by side, heart to heart, in holy and noble service for God and the race.
She was not to be used as a means to satisfy his lust, not a slave to his passion, but his equal, though different, the mother of his children, the queen of the household. The man pledges his troth to her. He promises to love, honor, and cherish her till death separates them.
She is also his. She promises to love, honor, and cherish him. Their sorrows are mutual, their responsibilities equally binding, their obligations coordinate and coextensive. He is not her slave. True love will bid her do her share. Love on the part of both will find joy in service each for the other, both for their children and for others. This same love will wisely train to the same unselfish service the children God may give them.
Such homes will not lead husband or wife to seek companionship elsewhere among those of the opposite sex. Neither one will pour out private troubles to another of the opposite sex. They will talk them over together and with God. If others must be brought in, it would be wise to bring the matter before some good man and his good wife who have stood the tests of life’s troubles for years and have conquered. Let each one read, not for the other, but for himself or herself, the lessons in Eph. 5:22-33; Col. 3:18; 1 Peter 3:1-7. Never let the husband read these scriptures to condemn his wife; let not the wife read them to condemn her husband; but let each read for his own heart and life.
Let the young man be warned and instructed by Proverbs 2 and 5. Let him fill his soul with Proverbs 5. There will come sex temptations to men and women, married and single. The devil has spread his nets, his snares, his traps everywhere. The food and drink of the world feed sexual passion. Hot with condiment, strong with stimulant, overabundant in quantity, they develop animal passion. The literature, the theaters, the flaming billboards, unholy fashions born of the demimonde, lewd talk, and nude art are among the things that foster and arouse and pervert the sexual nature of male and female.
The open sin, the overt act, is the child of the cherished thought. The thoughts will come. The unclean demons and their agencies will suggest them on every side. They will knock at the human doors repeatedly. Thank God, we need not bid them enter. We need not cherish their presence. We need not let them employ our faculties or energies. As has been said, “The crows may fly over our heads, but we need not let them build nests in our hair.” The hot blast may fan our cheek, but we must not let it burn our soul.
How may we be strong to resist? First of all, let us learn the lesson that we cannot overcome the sin by thinking upon it. In that lies defeat. Lust cherished brings forth sin, which, when finished, brings death. “I say unto you,” said Jesus, “that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” Matt. 5:28. The sin lies in the cherished thought.
The secret of overcoming and maintaining victory, then, lies in so filling the heart and mind with good things that the demons of lust can find no place, nothing upon which to hook their tenacles. Above all things else, enthrone Christ within. Let him be your king, your Lord, your master, your teacher. The devil found nothing in him. John 14:30. If Christ reigns in you, the devil will find no lodging place for his temptations.
Your position, your knowledge as physician or minister of the gospel, will not save you. Greater effort will be put forth by the devil to destroy you. Look upon all his temptations, however beautiful or attractive, as enemies that are seeking to compass your defeat, disgrace, and destruction. So cherish hatred toward them that you will have no desire even to think of them.
Finally, “whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Phil. 4:8. Only so may a pure, noble, Christian manhood and womanhood be developed, which by their purity in a corrupt and darkened world will lead heavenward those who are looking for purity and light.
Mountain View, Cal.