JESUS AND THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT
As we have learned in our study
of the other Ten Commandments, Jesus usually raised the bar
with regard
to the meaning or standards required of each Commandment. It is not
enough to
abide by (or ignore!) the literal interpretation only, we
must be willing to see the moral and
spiritual principle behind the
Commandment.
We find our first message from Jesus on adultery in the
Sermon on the Mount:
“Ye have heard that it was said by them of old
time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:
But I say unto you, That
whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath
committed adultery
with her already in his heart. And if thy right eye offend thee,
pluck
it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee thatone of thy members
should perish, and not that thy whole body should
be cast into hell. And if thy right
hand offend thee, cut it off,
and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one
of thy
members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast
into hell.”
(Matthew 5:27-30)
Jesus has set the new standard:
it is not enough just to avoid the legal definition of adultery;
we
must avoid indulging in lust. He tells us that this is so important
we should go so far as to
“pluck out an eye” that is being used for
lustful gazing. Barclay explains:
“Of course, the words
of Jesus are not to be taken with a crude literalism. What they
mean
is that anything which helps to seduce us to sin is to be ruthlesslyrooted out of
life.” (Barclay, William: “The Gospel of Matthew, Volume
1," pg. 148)
Barclay comments on the use of the term “lust” by Jesus:
"It is necessary that we should understand what Jesus is saying
here. He is not
speaking of the natural, normal desire, which
is part of human instinct and human
nature. According to the literal
meaning of the Greek the man who is condemned is
the man who looks
at a woman with the deliberate intention of lusting after her. The
man who is condemned is the man who deliberately uses his eyes to
awaken his
lust, the man who looks in such a way that passion is awakened
and desire
deliberately stimulated. . . . In a tempting world there
are many things which are
deliberately designed to excite desire:
books, pictures, plays, even advertisements.
The man whom Jesus here
condemns is the man who deliberately uses his eyes
to stimulate his
desires; the man who finds a strange delight in things which waken
the desire for the forbidden thing. To the pure all things are pure.
But the man whose
heart is defiled can look at any scene and find
something in it to titillate and excite
the wrong desire.” (ibid,
pg. 147)
Clearly we can see how the use of pornography is lust. Jesus
tells us this is adultery of the
heart. If we are Christian, we will
want to avoid pornography, explicit books, movies, and so
on. We must
“pluck out that eye,” so that we are not cast into “hell.”
We learn in Christian
Science that part of the definition of hell
is "self-imposed agony." Mistaking material pleasures
as a source
of happiness can bring self-imposed pain to the body.
Barclay’s
comment above that Jesus was not speaking of the “natural, normal
desire which is
part of human instinct and human nature,” at first
glance seems reasonable. In the time of
Jesus, this was a huge step
forward in man’s spiritual journey – to see that over-indulgence in
lust is a form of adultery. But, there is a further step – a spiritual
one – that challenges the
notion that desire for sex is a natural
or normal part of man’s spiritual identity. This will be
explored
under the section on Christian Science.
An important part of Jesus’
teachings was his explanation of motives. We learn that adultery
and
lust stem from sinful motives. Jesus told them:
“But those things
which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they
defile
the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries,
“Jesus knew that adultery
is a crime, and mind is the criminal. I wish the age was
up to his
understanding of these two facts, so important to progress and Christianity.”
(Eddy, Mary Baker: "Christian Healing," pg. 7:22)
The following episode
from Matthew, chapter 19, contains a teaching that most Christians
were
not able to comprehend at the time, much less were prepared to
follow. But it shows Jesus’
teaching on adultery and divorce in its
original state, “unfettered by human hypothesis.” It has
to be contemplated
and prayed about by individuals, without being dictated to by others
on
how they should act upon it:
“The Pharisees also came unto him,
tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful
for a man to put away
his wife for every cause? And he answered and said unto them,
Have
ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male
and
female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and
mother, and shall
cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one
flesh? Wherefore they are no more
twain, but one flesh. What therefore
God hath joined together, let not man put
asunder. They say unto him,
Why did Moses then command to give a writing of
divorcement, and to
put her away? He saith unto them, Moses because of the
hardness of
your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning
it was not so. And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife,
except it be for
fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery:
and whoso marrieth her
which is put away doth commit adultery. His
disciples say unto him, If the case of
the man be so with his wife,
it is not good to marry. But he said unto them, All men
cannot receive
this saying, save they to whom it is given. For there are some
eunuchs,
which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some
eunuchs,
which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have
made
themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able
to
receive it, let him receive it.”
There is one famous story, found
only in the Gospel of John that shows Jesus dealing with a
woman caught
in the act of adultery (notice that the man was not brought before
him!).
Actually the point of the episode is to show how Jesus
handled the Pharisees’ attempt to
catch him being disobedient to the
Jewish law, but it also says a lot about how Christians are
to show
Christly love in such situations with possible adulterers. We read:
"And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery;and
when they had set her in the midst, They say unto him, Master,
this woman was
taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the
law commanded us, that such
should be stoned: but what sayest thou?
This they said, tempting him, that they
might have to accuse him.
But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on
the ground, as
though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he
lifted
up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you,
let him first
cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down, andwrote on the ground. And they
which heard it, being convicted by their
own conscience, went out one by one,
beginning at the eldest, even
unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman
standing in
the midst. When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the
woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath
no man
condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto
her, Neither do
I condemn thee: go, and sin no more. (John 8:3-11)
While Jesus showed mercy to the adulterous woman, as we all should,
notice an important
point. She was told to “sin no more.” We must
learn that we are not to abuse God’s mercy,
by continuing to sin and
hoping for forgiveness, but we are to set ourselves on a path of
redemption
as soon as we recognize the sin for what it is.
“Blessed are the pure
in heart: for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8)
There are three separate
Gospel accountings of an episode in Jesus’ life in which he is
asked
about marriage in the resurrection by a group of Sadducees, who are
trying to trick
him. His ending message shows a remarkable thought.
The statement in Mark simply tells
us there will be no marriage in
the resurrection; but the statement in Luke appears to be
saying that
his followers should not marry at all!
“Jesus answered and said unto
them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the
power of God.
For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage,
but are as the angels of God in heaven.” (Matthew 22:29, 30)
“And
Jesus answering said unto them, The children of this world marry,
and are given
in marriage: But they which shall be accounted worthy
to obtain that world, and the
resurrection from the dead, neither marry,
nor are given in marriage.” (Luke 20:34, 35)
With that in mind, it
is interesting to read that the first noteworthy act of Jesus in his
ministry
is the turning of water into wine at the wedding in Cana,
recorded in John. This would indicate
at least some sort of approval
for the institution of marriage. Perhaps he is urging those who
are
ready, to consider deeply what he is saying about the spiritual nature
of man even now.
Mary Baker Eddy has a lovely comment germane to this.
It is from the chapter “Marriage”
in Science and Health, and has the
marginal sub-heading, “Blessing of Christ.”
“Experience should be
the school of virtue, and human happiness should proceed from
man's
highest nature. May Christ, Truth, be present at every bridal altar
to turn the water
into wine and to give to human life an inspirationby which man's spiritual and eternal
existence may be discerned.”
(S&H 64)
EARLY CHRISTIANITY AND THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT
The
early Christians embraced Jesus’ teachings on purity and adultery.
While those who had
come to Christianity as Jews understood the importance
of chastity and the family bond, not
everyone lived up to the ideals.
And, remember, Palestine was under the control of the
Roman Empire,
with its particular cultural ideas on marriage and fidelity.
“In the
time of Jesus marriage in Palestine had nearly broken down and the
treatment of women was shameful indeed. It is never to be forgotten
that it was
against that background that Jesus made his demands for
chastity. . . . It is
genuinely doubtful if there ever was such a
cataract of immorality in any age
as in the years when Christianity
first came into the world. . . . Christianity
confronted that situation
with an uncompromising demand for purity. Immorality
and all
impurity are not even to be named among Christians.” (Barclay, William:
“The
Ten Commandments,”1973; pg. 105)
The Greeks were notoriously indifferent
to the marriage bond with regard to sex, which was
considered to be
acceptable and normal outside of marriage. The Romans took marriage
more
seriously, but after they had conquered and assimilated the Greeks,
they unfortunately
assimilated their moral laxity. It was said: “Rome
had conquered Greece, but Greek morals
had conquered Rome.” Against
this backdrop, the early Christians took their stand.
“Let marriage
be held in honour among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled;
for God will judge the immoral and the adulterous.” (Hebrews
13:4- RSV)
There are two concepts we will here consider with regard
to the early Christian community:
1) their sense of the body; and
2) their ideas about marriage, and whether or not it was
appropriate
for a Christian to marry at all. William Barclay offers this commentary
on the body:
“We must begin with the simple, and yet far-reaching,
fact that the Christian
respected the body. To the Greek the body
was no more than the prison-house
of the soul, and from it came all
the ills of life. The world at that time was deeply
infected with
Gnostic thought, which believed that only spirit is good and that
all
matter is incurably and irremediably evil. . . . The inevitable
conclusion of this is
that the body is evil. If the body is evil, two
courses of action are possible. First a
man can adopt a complete
asceticism in which he denies every desire and deed
of the body. Second,
he can say that, because the body is evil, it does not matter
what
we do with it, and that therefore we can sate and glut it and it does
not matter,
because it is evil anyway.”
“But the Christian came with
a new conception of the body. For the Christian the
body is designed
to be nothing less than the temple of the Holy Spirit (I Cor. 3:16).
‘Do you know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells
in you?’ The
Christian must, therefore, glorify God in his body (I
Cor. 6:19, 20). It is not only
possible, it is an obligation,
to present the body as a sacrifice and an offering to
God (Rom 12:1).
Christianity came with a view of the body which was bound to
revolutionize
the ethics of sex for the Hellenistic world.” (Barclay, William:
“The Ten Commandments,” pg. 125)
Some people, who have not studied
Christian Science carefully, have likened it to the Gnostic
thought
mentioned above. They think that because we challenge the reality
of matter as the
true substance of Spirit’s universe, we must feel
there is no reason to care what we do to the
body, or with it. This
is false. While we appear to be living in our human bodies, we must
take care of it. If we abuse it, we are not demonstrating the unreality
of sin. Mrs. Eddy explains:
“Expose and denounce the claims of evil
and disease in all their forms, but realize
no reality in them. A sinner
is not reformed merely by assuring him that he cannot
be a sinner
because there is no sin. To put down the claim of sin, you must detect
it,
remove the mask, point out the illusion, and thus get the
victory over sin and so prove
its unreality. The sick are not healedmerely by declaring there is no sickness, but by
knowing that there
is none.
“A sinner is afraid to cast the first stone. He may say,
as a subterfuge, that evil is
unreal, but to know it, he must demonstrate
his statement. To assume that there
are no claims of evil and yet
to indulge them, is a moral offence. Blindness and
self-righteousnesscling fast to iniquity. When the Publican's wail went
out to the
great heart of Love, it won his humble desire. Evil whichobtains in the bodily
senses, but which the heart condemns, has nofoundation; but if evil is
uncondemned, it is undenied and nurtured.
Under such circumstances, to say
that there is no evil, is an evil
in itself. When needed tell the truth concerning the
lie. Evasion
of Truth cripples integrity, and casts thee down from the pinnacle.”
(S&H 447)
Christian Science and the
Seventh Commandment; Christian Science and
Marriage; Dealing with
the Temptation of Adultery; "Blessed are the
