Commandment seven - Faithfulness

Exodus 20:14 You shall not commit adultery

Adultery can be strictly defined as ‘sexual relations in which at least one person is married to someone else', but the spirit of adultery takes a lot more into account, and deals with the whole sphere of unfaithfulness, inordinate desires, and betrayal in relationships. It also highlights the extraordinary faithfulness of God toward us even when we are unfaithful.

So a person at this point may say ‘yes well Commandment Five is a bit too hard, not getting my own way all the time, and Commandment Six is quite unreasonable, not getting angry and resentful at everybody who gets in the way all the time… There’s too much misery in all of that - give me a break!’
In Commandment six we are challenged to manage offences and heal relationships through forgiveness, learning to listen and accept each other and ourselves in our faults and to lay aside blame and retribution so that love flows again.

The transition from Commandment six to Commandment seven.
Matthew 24:10 And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.
Peter the apostle was greatly shamed when he denied Jesus, but we see the faithfulness and loyalty of Jesus in restoring the repentant Peter into a place of love and trust and rest.

Satisfied or gratified.
Only God’s love can truly satisfy (self-evident Christian truth) — and a dissatisfied person can opt for being a self-gratified person in any available way. People can be genuinely convinced that life is meant to gratify them. The U.S Declaration of Independence has confirmed people in what is called the self-evident truth of a God given unalienable right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness (1776). Our creator God does not give us an unalienable right to the pursuit of happiness as Thomas Jefferson the Epicurean materialist proposed.
God gives us a responsibility to value and care for one another in relationships. That is the point of the Commandments. God is not an object for our pursuit of happiness or self-gratification. (Psalm 55 escape the pain of life like a dove – it’s a nothing plan). That has caused so many people to run away from a life they don’t like instead of building a life with God that they can love and enjoy. John 15:10-12,

The reality of blessing
We do ask God for his blessings and supernatural divine work on our behalf in our weakness and we see God’s faithfulness. Asking for God’s goodness is one thing but commanding God to grant us material happiness is another thing. I will always ask and will always give thanks for God’s providence. But I will always accept that if I don’t always get what I want, my good God remains faithful, and I receive what I need and what he wants for me. His ultimate provision in all of these things is a blessing truly beyond what we would have asked or thought.

 

The reality of suffering
A faithful God will nurture us through the trials of life for our spiritual growth into his likeness. We all have fundamental experiences in common such as pain and suffering and death. In the midst of that stark reality God wants us to experience the absolute reality of his comfort and inspiration and his peculiar joy in a faithful relationship at the deepest level with himself (Great is his faithfulness). Did you see God at work on your behalf in your trials of faith? Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God.

 

The reality of the Promise
Hebrews 11.26 They were stoned to death, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, did not receive the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect (complete). The promise is a faithful faithful person who is with us through it all.

2Timothy 2:13 If we are unfaithful, He remains faithful; He cannot contradict Himself.
It is a life changing revelation to know that Jesus is totally committed to us, so that purpose and meaning for our lives can be fulfilled, despite all circumstances, adverse or favourable. Great is His faithfulness.