The Seventh Commandment

From the shirt list:  7. You shall not commit adultery.  Short and simple, from Exodus 20:14. when Jesus explains this commandment we get much more info.  Matthew 5:27-32 "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of they members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. It has been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement: But I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery."  God wants to write the commandments on our hearts, we see that in the second verse of this section, whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her in his heart. God's perfect plan from the beginning of time has been one man / one woman for life. Until death do part. Once again we have proved over and over without Jesus we cannot keep the commandments. I don't know if anyone should listen to me other than sometimes we learn a lot from our failures. I certainly have failed in this commandment. I am in my fifth marriage, and all four of the previous woman are still alive.  Yes, there was unfaithfulness. But the vow we take for the most part, says for better or worse until death do part. One place when Jesus was talking he said Moses gave a writing of divorcement because of the hardness of our hearts. When one partner of the marriage union quits it is over. No matter how hard the other person tries, it is over unless both are committed and working at it. Notice how serious Jesus makes this commandment, pluck out your eye or cut off you hand if it offends you or causes you to stumble. God's perfect plan has been one man / one woman for life until death do part. All I can say to any who has failed as I have, there is grace at the cross.  In Genesis 2:24 it says "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh."  I go to this scripture because in my experience the only marriage of mine where there was a cleaving together was in this last one my fifth.  When I think back there are so many wrong reasons for marriage. I don't understand to this day my second marriage, but the third and fourth there was no cleaving. Right from the start there was another person involved  and it was like there was no bonding, no cleaving together. If you ask me any one of these marriages should have worked if this commandment had been obeyed to the extent that Jesus describes. But when one person hardens their heart it is over. There was a hardness of heart on my part in the first marriage, I was done, I couldn't handle the adultery. In the second I do not think there was adultery on the part of my second wife, but I do believe she hardened her heart for some reason. I am not sure to this day, because one day she just took her stuff and left with hardly a word. It was a pattern of hers, she did the same to her first. Unfaithfulness from the start ended the third and fourth marriages fairly quickly. But it was in the fifth where the bonding and the cleaving together as one took place. Marriage can be a wonderful thing if done right. A commitment to each other, faithfulness and honesty and love. God perfect plan for marriage, one woman / one man and no adultery and it can work. Commitment to each other. Adultery is a killer of marriages and Jesus goes so far as to say if we lust after another we have already committed adultery in our hearts. It is so important that these commandments be written on our hearts. God bless, LVZ,