"Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery."
By W. N. Glenn
THERE is not a commandment in the decalogue so generally yet unwittingly violated by professed Christians as the seventh. This will be to many a startling assertion; but the subject is introduced thus abruptly in order that it may be startling, as it ought to be, trusting that a little candid consideration of the Scriptures will elucidate the point. In the fifth chapter of Ephesians, the relationship between Christ and the church is represented as of the same character as that of husband and wife. Or, rather, the highest ideal of the matrimonial relation is that of Christ and the church. "The husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church." "Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands." "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it." "For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church; for we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery; but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Now let us turn to the seventh chapter of Romans, for a further understanding of this union, and its bearing upon the commandment: "The woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man." Mark the application: "Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God." The argument is simply this: Before conversion, in the light of the law we were wedded to sin—"our old man" (Rom. 6 : 6), "the flesh" (chap. 7 : 5). In that condition we could not be united to Christ; but when that "wherein we were held" ("the motions of sins," verse 5) died, then, like the woman whose husband died, we were free from the law that held us in that union, and at liberty to marry another, even him who was "raised from the dead." Some take the position here that the law which held us to the former union was abolished; but that idea would destroy the force of the illustration. When a woman's husband dies, and she is loosed from the law that united them, no one claims that the marriage law is repealed, or becomes a dead letter; but that it merely loses its effect in binding her to that husband. If she marries again, the same law holds her to her newly-wedded husband. So then, when "our old man" is dead (which is virtually our being dead to the world), and we are married to Christ, the same law holds us to him that formerly held us to "the flesh." Keeping in mind the fact that the woman is held to her husband as long as he liveth, it is plain that when we become married to Christ our obligation to be subject unto him holds as long as he liveth; hence the union can never, by any act of ours, be legitimately dissolved, and the Christian who turns from his allegiance and again becomes united to another, is an adulterer. Furthermore, Christ said that if a man looked upon a woman to lust after her, he had already committed adultery. According to this exposition of the law, the Christian who even looks longingly after the pleasures, the follies, and allurements of the world,—whatever is inimical to the interests of the Lord's cause,—even without actual indulgence, is an adulterer. In confirmation of these conclusions, note the culmination of the great apostate church as brought to view in the Revelation: "Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication." Adultery,—turning away from the Lord and joining herself to the world ("all nations"),—is her most prominent characteristic. Again: "And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters; with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication." This is sufficient to show that the primary element in apostasy is a violation of the seventh commandment,—the heart turning from a true allegiance to its legitimate spouse. This is adultery in the deepest sense of the term—adultery of the heart. When the apostle Paul, in writing to the Galatians (chap. 5 : 19) details the "works of the flesh," he heads the list with adultery. Eve was led to partake of the forbidden fruit through adultery—her heart, her longings, were turned from her marital allegiance, to an illegitimate affection. The Christian cannot deliberately violate any other commandment in the law until the way has been paved by a spiritual transgression of the seventh. But there is still another important phase of this subject growing out of the illustration in Romans 7—out of the principle that a woman is an adulteress if she marry another husband before the first is dead. This convicts the individual of adultery who unites himself to Christ before the "old man" is dead, before self is crucified and is dead to sin. Where then stands the hypocrite, or the self-deceived one who has thought he could join himself to Christ without giving up the world? Under the Lord's construction of the law, and under his apostle's analysis of the same, they stand branded as adulterers. But many well-meaning persons may not have looked deeply enough into the law to discern their true condition. They are ignorantly transgressing the commandment; their sin is yet a "secret fault." It is time for such to take up the prayer of the psalmist: "Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults." Ps. 19 : 12. "Deal with thy servant according unto thy mercy, and teach me thy statutes. I am thy servant; give me understanding, that I may know thy testimonies." Ps. 119 : 124, 125.