The Demise of the Seventh Commandment

When God gave Moses the Ten Commandments at the Summit of Mt. Sinai, He knew that humanity would fail in the keeping of them. So why did He give them to us? For two reasons. First, God gave us His law to restrain wickedness and evil. Proverbs 29:18 tells us that "Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but blessed is he who keeps the law." God's revelation of his law is meant to curb our tendency to move toward sin. So even though we fail and fail miserably in obeying His commandments, they still restrain us from sinning to our fullest capacity! Secondly, God gave us His law to show us our sin and lead us to Christ. The Apostle Paul referred to this purpose behind the law when he wrote, "What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, 'Do not covet'" (Romans 7:7). When seen in this light, we can heartily say that the God-given law that we have in the Scriptures is good!

Now when I read through the list of the Ten Commandments, I must admit that I struggle with each and every one of them (with perhaps the exception of the Fifth - and this ONLY because my mother and father both moved on to Eternity 7 years ago). But if I had to pick one of these ten that is being readily dismissed by many today (even among professing Christians) - it would have to be the Seventh. This commandment reads, "You shall not commit adultery." Kevin DeYoung, in his book The Good News We Almost Forgot wrote the following about the Seventh Commandment. His words are worth considering.

"Is there any command more ridiculed in our culture than the Seventh Commandment? Adultery is a joke; homosexuality is a right; sex before marriage is the norm; no-fault divorce and remarriage is assumed; bestiality is increasingly considered avant garde. This is the world we live in. Sex has always been a leading vote-getter in the most popular sin contest, but never before in this country has so much sexual deviance been made to look so normal and God's standard made to look so obscene. Our lives are awash in sexuality." 

DeYoung goes on to cite the following statistics concerning sex and the Internet:
- Pornography and sex-related sites make up 60% of daily web traffic!
- Of Internet users in the U.S., 40% visit porn cites at least once a month (this % skyrockets among 18 - 34 year old males).
- Among children ages 8 to 16, 90% have viewed Internet porn.

And friends, just being a Christian does not make one immune to the sexual temptations around us (research shows that the % of professing Christians involved in porn is substantial). So all this to say ... the Seventh Commandment is not merely being broken in our country - it is being obliterated!

So ... given that sex drips from everything around us (from TV commercials to films, from billboards to Internet sites and even unsolicited emails), how can a Christian slay the dragon of lust? In tomorrow's post, I plan to list some steps toward doing just that.

Thanks for stopping by . . .

pj