The Freedom of Boundaries: The 6th Commandment
Do Not Commit Adultery
Few emotional wounds cut as deeply as betrayal/broken trust.
When trust is violated, the bridge of relationship blows up and crumbles. It’s especially true with those closest to you, co-workers, partners, friends, people in your church. The closer they are to you, the more impactful; especially among Christians. The psychological fallout rolls like the dust cloud off an imploding building.
As destructive as that force is – it pales to the shock and impact of a discovered adultery.
The lies are compounded and magnified by the fact that the most intimate of expressions are used for the most volatile of betrayals. The gift of sexual intimacy – to be known and to know in the most revealing of ways is wielded like a sword for the deepest of cuts to the soul.
It’s likely the reason the Bible uses sexual language and metaphor to express the spiritual adultery in which we all participate when we “are intimate” with foreign gods; when we fall in love with the lust of the immediate. Ezekiel 16 contains a graphic and detailed description. The prophet Hosea is told to marry an unfaithful prostitute and God uses her promiscuity to convict his people of their broken trust with Him
It is why the gift of the Christ is so powerful! The Judas betrayal and Peter’s denial are actually some of the deep and damaging sins for which Jesus is sacrificed by the Father. Betraying the Son of Man with a kiss would be transformed into the kiss of peace in St Paul’s writings. I have witnessed this transformation in marriages broken then healed by the Breath of God’s Spirit! I am privileged to proclaim this same Jesus to you.
Yes, friends and fellow Christians will break trust. Yes, marriages will explode through the violation of the 6th commandment – but larger and more powerful still is the forgiveness of God to rebuild the bridge(s) we break down.
— Karl