[AI translation] In the Word we are reading, Jesus explains the awesome holiness of the seventh commandment. "Thou shalt not commit adultery", literally translated, "Thou shalt not commit adultery", says the old law in the Ten Commandments. But according to Jesus, the transgression of this law begins when a man looks at another man's wife, or a woman looks at another man's husband, for the sake of an evil desire! He does not reach out his hand to her, he does not touch her, he only covets her, he only - as they say - looks at her with lustful eyes! Now, says Jesus, he has broken a marriage in his heart! So desire, that physical and spiritual longing for the other, which is intended to bring the spouses together, to bind them to each other: it can become a separating force, a destructive force! The sexual instinct is a formidable force: it can indeed either unite or divide spouses. It is the instinct that leads people into the most sin and misery. It is the area of our lives where Satan can most easily get a foothold. The only way to satisfy without harm is as God ordained before sin and allowed after sin: in the lifelong physical and spiritual relationship of one man and one woman, in monogamous marriage! The sanctity of this is protected by God when he says so in Commandment VII: "Thou shalt not commit adultery, neither thine own nor another's, neither that which is already existing, nor that which is yet to be! And Jesus adds: not even in thought!It is all the more necessary to cling to this Word, to the power of this Word, because the modern way of life is all the more conducive to the sin of adultery. Let me briefly explain why: Not because the moral situation has become more relaxed than it used to be, but because we live in a changed world. In the past, when life was not as mechanised as it is now, families formed a social and working community, a unit within their own circle. Think of an industry or a business or an economy. Husband, wife and children all worked together in it, working together for the same goal, really helping each other in the same job. They needed each other as labourers, as co-workers, they spent their time together. They were forced to stay together. Perhaps not because they loved each other more than family members do today, but because of the bond they shared through the work they did together. Today, however, the family is less and less a social and economic unit. The father may work in an office, the mother in a factory, the son as a mechanic in yet another company, the daughter as a medical student, to name but a few. In other words, one is engaged in a completely different line of work and interests from the other. They do their jobs separately, as many as there are of them, and they hardly need each other to make a living, they are not dependent on each other. For Adam, Eve was the helpmate whom God had found to be his match. Today, the world has changed: the husband's primary helpmate is not his wife, but a secretary or typist, often much younger than his wife, with whom he spends most of the day, often working late into the night. In the same way, for the wife, the worker boy, or boss, or assistant, or colleague standing next to her on the assembly line is her helper, and she lives with him and not with her husband. The conflicts that ensue are a sad tragedy that court records could tell us about. From this constant togetherness and working together, there is almost a constant supply of opportunities for 'someone to look upon a woman as a cause of evil desire'!
Many a time I have seen on the banks of the Danube two ships anchored in the same harbour, tied to the same pile, and anchored side by side, and quite snugly together. But when they leave the harbour, each with a different direction, a different destination, a different captain, a different burden, each going its own separate way, far apart. Then, at the end of their journey, they return to the same harbour, again side by side. In essence, however, they would lead separate lives. Out on the waters, in the night or in the perils of storms, they are far apart. This is what a lot of marriages look like today. Sometimes they return to the same port or anchorage only to rest, but in essence they sail the waters of life apart, far from each other! Is it any wonder that on a sad day, they will find themselves on a foreign shore, in another port of call, and resting?
Then the world changed greatly in the relations of the sexes to each other. Not in the sense that sexual life is more unbridled today than it was in the past, but in the sense that the sexual sins that have always existed are now more blatant, more honest, less hypocritical and more thinly disguised than they were in the past. Marriage is not protected by the tradition that openly condemned adultery! (Adultery that remained secret was not condemned in the past.) So even this very thin tradition does not stand in the way of sexual promiscuity - which stems from the fear that my best years will pass without real happiness, without real interesting, great love! So then the most sacred relationship between man and woman is reduced to the level of a certain sport, an amusing game.
The other day I read in a Dutch newspaper that some young men got into a strange car which the owner, while shopping in the shop, had left in the street, leaving the keys in it. The young men were delighted, saw it as a chance for a free tour, one of them got behind the wheel and they set off. They didn't want to steal the car, they just wanted to have a bit of fun. (This happens so often that there's a word for it: joy-riding.) They were having a great time, having a great time, until... they hit a tree, ended up in a crash and a police matter. Turns out the paperwork wasn't in order, they'd used the car that belonged to someone else without permission. The joyride ended in jail. But that's the picture of many marital tragedies! Just an opportunity for a little innocent joy-riding. He doesn't want to steal the other man's wife, the other man's property, just have a little fun with it. Carpe diem: Enjoy the opportunity! Rip the flower from every watch! And it works, the owner doesn't even notice, and they have a great time enjoying their secret pleasures! While once... Yeah, once they hit something, they crash. Turns out the papers are not in order, because they didn't live by the Word of God! And the punishment comes - not prison, not the police, much worse than that! Hell itself! Because such a joy ride always leads there, always ends there, in hell! As the Lord Jesus says: it is better for you to be maimed, than to have your whole body burned!
How innocently it began, and look where it has led!? No innocent flirting! He that looketh on a woman for an evil lust, hath now committed adultery with her in his heart! And how Jesus does not exaggerate when he uses such a strong word, let me quote from a letter written by a deceived woman to her rival: "I accuse you of making my husband miserable. He will never be a whole man again, he will never be happy. If he is at home, he wishes he were there; if he is there, he wishes he were back here. His health undermined, his nerves destroyed. He needs tonic injections, but the doctor cannot help it if his soul - and not only his soul! You seem to be one of those people who sacrifice people ruthlessly for the sake of adventure, for the sake of experience. At this moment, the only concrete result is that you have upset our lives and made our lovely little home desolate and barren. Can joy spring from ruins for anyone? Do not answer my letter! You will not answer me! If you still have a conscience, I do not envy you!"
Isn't it an exaggeration when Jesus says "hell"? And is it not understandable that Jesus wants to get to the root of this evil and warns you not to commit adultery in your mind! Jesus knew 2,000 years ago, as psychologists are now increasingly discovering, that thoughts are a driving force inside a person. If someone tolerates them in his heart: they become action, against our consent, against our common sense. Do not even toy with the idea of adventure! We impoverish ourselves by making the relationship between man and woman a fleeting adventure. God gave us a much richer gift when he created us male and female, called us to be each other's helpers, to help each other through all earthly happiness and unhappiness to the eternal goal!
May we have the courage and the strength for unceasing slaying and tearing in the sense in which Jesus says: "But if your right eye offends you, gouge it out and cast it away; for it is better for you that one of your members should perish, than that your whole body should be thrown into the fire. And if thy right hand offend thee, thou shalt cut it off, and cast it away from thee: for it is better for thee that one of thy members perish, than that thy whole body perish. (Mt 5,29-30) Of course, this is not a legal rule to be taken literally. For even if the right eye is gouged out, what good is it if the left eye looks with even greater lust on the other spouse? And what is the use of gouging out both eyes, if the heart sees further and desires further? Here there is no other way than to offer the whole of life, including sexual life, to Christ, that is, to place our physical and spiritual communion with our life partner under the protection and control of Jesus Christ.
I read the case of Jesus with the adulterous woman (Jn 8,1-11). This feast was celebrated with great joy. They spent the time under canopies in memory of the wandering in the wilderness, a kind of harvest festival, when the wine was abundantly consumed, people were rejoicing in an illuminated state. Well: it was after such a feast that the Pharisees and scribes brought a woman to Jesus early in the morning, who had just been caught in adultery and who, according to the Mosaic law, was to be stoned to death. And Jesus, who had already declared prying eyes to be adultery, apparently pays no attention when they scuffle in front of him. Finally, in answer to the urgent question, he says: "Let him who is without fault among you cast the first stone". And the virtuous, honourable men all quietly evaporate. Not one of them dared to consider himself guiltless. "Does no one accuse you?" says Jesus, "I do not accuse you, go away and sin no more." What this short sentence means is: "Woman, I have taken your sin upon myself, with this sin of yours I am on my way to Calvary to make atonement for it. Begin again with my strength, my life for me, live by my grace, fight against your sinful desires now as a renewed person, as someone who can forget everything that is behind you! Start a new life!"
Jesus does not minimize sexual sin, in fact, He takes it so seriously that if one wanted to keep it, to guard its purity, one would have to gouge out its eyes, cut off its hands, and still not succeed! And in the scene just before, Jesus, by his silence, proclaims precisely: 'Men, you have all broken the seventh commandment, you should all be stoned to death! But that you may not be punished as you deserve, I have taken your sin upon myself, so that you may sin no more. Behold, for my sake you can begin again, forgetting what is behind you, and living no longer by your own efforts, trusting not in your own human love, which is so quickly coming to nothing, but drawing on my strength!"
Do you feel that the 7th commandment is not a law but a gift? It exalts marriage to such a height that it can only be realized through a common faith in Jesus Christ. By making marriage so holy, the Seventh Commandment makes us bow at the feet of Christ and almost forces us to live by His love. From Christ Himself, who died on the cross for adulterous, fornicating people, so that adulterous and fornicating people could start all over again and sin no more! That our lives may be a true joyful journey together to eternal happiness!
Amen
Date: 14 October 1956 (Family in the Bible III)
Lesson
Jn 8,1-11