Law & Order: Spiritual Intent – Forever Faithful

You shall not commit adultery.. (Ex. 20:14)

When reflecting on spiritual intent and the way that God has always wanted it to be, it is then that sense is made of Jesus’ request in the guide to prayer ‘your kingdom, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’  Reflecting heavenly values in our earthy experience is the purpose of life and to get that requires a commitment on the Creator.

Having spent the first part establishing the primacy of His character and how we relate to Him, the Redeemer and Lord of Life invites us to reflect His faithfulness and the faithfulness of that which we are meant to have seen in honouring our father and mother.  Taking this example to heart and replicating it with special regard to all life we then come across the most important relationship that God inaugurated at creation.

When Adam saw the woman that God had crafted from his rib, such was his delight and awe that it is signified as special as the foundation of all human interaction and relationship from there.  Not only that implicit in this moment of awe and wonder is the lifelong commitment that we see as marriage today as echoed in that post Adamic song note that from there man would leave his parents, cleave to his wife and the two would become one flesh.  This was more than just a definition of what happens when we get married or in sexual relations, something reflecting the nature of relationships is being hinted at deeply.

Words like commitment, responsibility and faithfulness – do not words spring effortlessly to mind about the attractive features of life.  In essence, though, it is what we admire in the things around us.  We buy a product and there is a certain length of time in which we expect that product to be good.  We would be disappointed if the product conked out on us before its time.  Some still treasure the cultural value of all materials that would not dream of disposing any goods until they have been thoroughly used and are even days beyond it’s use-by-date.

Sadly such is the immediate gratification consumption mentality of the consumer age that there is little time to find contentment in the goods we buy today as by the end of the day there is an updated model of the product that we must purchase.  So what was good for us today is no longer good for us and we develop the same mentality with relationships and at the nearest sign of inconvenience or the possibility of something better elsewhere there’s a rush to ditch the old and take on the new.  So rather than making the most of the situation we’re in and being sensitive and responsive to the benefits that can be gained through patience, there is a greater sense of dissatisfaction and the unquenchable thirst continues seemingly unabated.

So there is the offer to accept the invitation of faithfulness by the God who exhibits it.  It is not an invitation to a life of ease and unlimited bliss.  It is an invitation, this side of the Fall, to pain, disappointment, failure and despair.  Yet because it is an invitation given by the Lord and Redeemer of our lives who gives Life itself, through Him it is an invitation into knowing Him better and through Him appreciating His gift in the spouse He has given for life.

As with the character of love seen in 1 Corinthians 13 this is an invitation to ‘bear all things, believe all things, hope all things (and) endures all things’ (vs.7).  As that’s lived out in the most intimate of relationships having been exemplified by loving parents whose lives depended on this love then it has a bearing for all relations from other family members, to friends to strangers and enemies.

This invitation to faithfulness is particularly difficult with what appears to be disposable marriages with the ease of divorce and the implicit pressure that it’s really all about being happy and if you’re not happy with the one you’re with, there’s always plenty of other fish in the sea.  With the various pressures on marriages it is only too easy to consider the options of leaving, or worse still having a still-birth marriage where despite the appearances the husband’s desire is no longer for his wife as Adam’s was for Eve or vice-versa.  The concept of faithfulness invites each of us to fully engage with the loved one – becoming one and that unity lifelong to discover, celebrate and rejoice in the beauty of that person and what God-given treats have been embedded in this person so unique that no other person can even match.

Very much like the Word to have no other gods, the Word against adultery calls for a single-minded, narrow-focus on the value of the commitment we have made and not see it as a binding contract and institution to which we are bound against our wishes, but a love-covenant involving God to which we voluntarily agree to attach ourselves and embrace this oneness with the merits that follow.  Thus faithfulness in marriage gives hope for faithfulness in other areas of life – such faithfulness can be infectious in the lives of others who look on and expresses horizontally and vertically contentment and joy in what God has given.

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

dmcd