Morning Moments

Preventing Adultery
Exodus 20:14; 1 Corinthians 7

Are we true to our mates? Or do we just SAY we are?

We live is a sex crazed world, advertised as wonderful in TV shows, commercials, billboards, and every other place we can squeeze it in.

In 1995 about one third (39 percent of men, 27 percent of women) of USA TODAY readers responding to a living in the USA survey say they've had an extramarital affair. Today we are told that it is more than half.

"My guess is more of them had an affair and didn't admit it," says Fred Humphrey, past president of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy.

Major studies on extramarital affairs conducted in the '40s indicated that at least 50 percent of married men in the USA and 26 percent of married women had affairs by the time they hit 40. Some researchers think the number of women having affairs is rising -- possibly approaching 50 percent.

Experts say extramarital affairs rarely have happy endings. Humphrey points out that about half of married couples either divorce or separate when one spouse learns of the other's affair. Others anguish over trying to salvage the relationship.

"Learning about it results in instant pain and anger," he says. "Then there will always be a barrier, to some extent."

Adultery is in epidemic proportions in America. Soceity accepts it, the church accepts it...but God does not accept it!

The apostle Paul warns us in 1 Corinthians 7 about the danger of a couple defrauding one another sexually. He says that it leads to infidelity because of lack of self control. Sex is not a weapon for either a man or a woman to use against his/her spouse.

Paul says to prevent adultery we must recognize that the wife has power over the man's body and the man over the woman's when it comes to sexual needs. That is how infidelity is prevented. Now consider from Genesis - IGNORE THIS AND YOU ASK FOR TROUBLE.

We shall fill in the outline in the coming days, God willing, as we see the Principle, the Problem, the Punishment, the Pardon, and the Pleasure.