There is a Reason God Made the Seventh Commandment

Dr. John M. Douglas Jr. of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention reported last week that the rate of sexually transmitted disease (STD) infections increased notably in the last year. After hitting a record low, gonorrhea infections were on the rise, particularly due to a “superbug” strain that is highly resistant to common antibiotics. Congenital syphilis was also reported to be on the rise. Syphilis is of great concern to health professionals because it has the potential to deform or kill babies. All of these concerns were bad enough. However, some of the worst news was about the disease called chlamydia. Chlamydia is like gonorrhea in that it is a bacterial infection that can cause a great deal of pain and discomfort in the groin area. Also like Gonorrhea, chlamydia can lead to Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID). The shocking news about all of this is that there were more than one million cases of chlamydia reported in America last year, more than any other STD ever recorded.

Chlamydia is considered one of the most “deceitful” among such diseases because in the majority of cases (90%) there are no symptoms. Many times, people with the disease will spread it to others, not knowing they have the disease themselves. Mothers can also spread the disease to their babies. When one has chlamydia, the risk of contracting the HIV virus and developing AIDS is increased enormously, if there is repeated sexual contact. However, perhaps one of the greatest and most deceitful threats about the disease is that a large number of women who become infected with chlamydia also contract PID. Even one infection of chlamydia can lead to PID. PID often leads to a scarring of the female reproductive organs resulting in infertility. The fact that over a million cases of chlamydia have been reported in the U.S almost guarantees the fact that there have been and still are untold numbers of young women who have disease, who do not know it, and one day, they will discover that they will never be able to bear children, and it will be too late to do anything about it. It is a game of Russian roulette. All it takes is one encounter, one time, one failure to note symptoms, and one missed diagnosis. Sexually transmitted disease is simply one more way that even nature itself warns us that there is a Seventh Commandment among the Ten Commandments, and that when you break that commandment, you will pay the price.

Commandment number seven, commonly known as “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” is, perhaps, the least observed and least respected commandment of all the Ten Commandments in modern day America. For centuries, most cultures have respected the sanctity of marriage and the marital union between husband and wife. It has almost been an established principle of common sense that the physical union of a man and a woman is restricted to only one man and one woman within the confines of marriage. However, the last 50 to 75 years in America has seen a “sexual revolution.” Many modern intellects, philosophers, educators, and other leaders have pushed the idea of “sexual freedom” upon the American culture and today almost anything goes. There are huge numbers of people in our country today that believe that anyone should be able to indulge in sexual activity anytime with anyone they so choose, with no restrictions or limitations. People who take attitudes like this become fools.

You can claim there is no law of gravity all day long, but if you break that law and jump off a high enough building, you will plunge to your death. You can claim there is no law against adultery all you wish, but if you break that law, you will one day suffer the consequences. You may contract a sexually transmitted disease. You may infect others. You may make yourself sterile. You may infect or kill your unborn baby. You may die an early death. On the other hand, even if you don’t contract an STD, if you break the seventh commandment, you will tear and rip apart your own soul, and that of your sexual partner, and that of your spouse or future spouse. You may say, “But later on I am going to marry this person.” Then get married first, and then enjoy the blessing of sexual union in marriage! If you cheat with this person now, how do they know you will not cheat with someone else later? How can you allow this person to violate you, and become intimate with you, when they do not publicly pledge by marriage to be true to you for the rest of their lives?

Living with a person without being married to that person is a sin. It has always been a sin; it always will be a sin. God will hold our culture accountable for becoming so passive and permissive on something that He has declared to be so wrong. Dear friend, please let me admonish you. If you are not yet married, keep yourself pure for the person you will some day marry. If you have already messed up, then find forgiveness in Jesus Christ, and enter into a new covenant of purity, once again. Put distance between yourself and that old sin. You will find that God blesses such determination. If you are already married, then pledge anew to yourself, to your spouse, and to God that you will always be faithful. “Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.” (Hebrews 13:4)

James Sanders

Pastor,

sandersjc@yahoo.com