The Seventh Commandment

*The following post was originally written as a meditation for our Confession of Sin during Lord’s Day worship.

Confession of Sin

Acknowledging our guilt; resting in His grace.

The Seventh Commandment:

“You shall not commit adultery.” (Exodus 20:14)

God is the author of sex and sexuality. Like all other aspects of his Creation, this too was originally made very good.

Properly expressed, sex is a holy gift of God to be celebrated and enjoyed within the context of the covenant bond of marriage between one man and one woman. Outside of this context, sexual actions and lustful desires are righteously condemned as sin.

Because God is love, God hates every form of sexual perversion.

Because God is love, God hates lust. It is wicked to view another human being as a cheap sexual object to be used for selfish gratification.

Because God is love, God hates lust-seeking. It is equally sinful to desire to be lusted after, and to intentionally dress and act in ways that encourage others to sexually objectify you.

Because God is love, God hates pornography.

Because God is love, God hates all premarital and extramarital sexual actions.

Because God is love, God hates all homosexual desires and actions.

Contrary to the values and declarations of our culture, sexual sin is not to be celebrated and treated as expressions of freedom and heroism. Nor are sinful sexual desires, thoughts, actions, and values in any way to be considered morally neutral.

Sexual sin, (like all other sin), is justly deserving of God’s wrath and never without consequences, (Rom. 1:26-27; Rom. 6:23).

If God did not hate sexual perversion and sin, God would not be loving.

Sexual sin destroys our sense of identity.

Sexual sin destroys our dignity.

Sexual sin destroys our freedom by enslaving us to perverted addictions.

Sexual sin destroys our minds by poisoning our thoughts with lewd desires.

Sexual sin destroys our hearts by filling us with torturing guilt and shame.

Sexual sin destroys our bodies through disease and other physical harms caused by the practice of wicked perversions.

Sexual sin destroys our relationships by violating trust, shattering marriages, dissolving families, and preying on the vulnerable.

Sexual sin destroys lives by producing children who are, from their birth, unwanted, unloved and uncared for by their parents. Worse still, sexual sin produces children who are willfully put to death by their own parents while they lay helplessly developing in the womb.

If God did not hate sexual perversion and sin, God would not be loving.

It is because God is loving that God hates sexual sin.

God is all-knowing. No creature is hidden from before his eyes, (Heb. 4:13). No thought or intention of the soul is veiled from his perception. There is no bedroom, hotel, website, or secret corner of the heart where anyone can hide their sin from God.

There is only one place where sinners can hide their sin and find forgiveness (Ps. 32:7); only one Savior who can take away our guilt and shame (Ps. 32:5); only one God who is the merciful Redeemer of the sexually broken who come to him in repentance and faith. Let us humbly turn our hearts to him now (Micah 7:19).

We invite you to privately confess your sins before the Lord now. — (A TIME OF SILENT CONFESSION)