It was said in the past, ‘You shall not commit adultery’. But I say to you that, whoever looks at a woman with lust, have already committed adultery with her in his heart. "And if your right eye causes you to sin, plunk it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell."
Furthermore it has been said, "Who ever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce,’ "But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except for sexual immorality cause her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery.
In the 1st chapter, "The First Law", we talked about "Anger". Who gets angry will not be admitted to the Kingdom of Heavens, even if he elevated one of the dead! A saint once said, "Man’s anger, can’t be accepted by God". We talked about how to teach yourself patience, wisdom and avoidance of anger.
The second law deals with personal purity, that we all need. The first part of this law explains the meaning of adultery in Christianity.
First: Anyone, who looks at a woman with lust, has indeed committed adultery in his heart.
Secondly: Who divorces his wife other than for adultery, he himself has committed adultery. Also, who marries a divorced woman has committed adultery.
A Jew, in the Old Testament, was expected to be pure and had to follow the law of purity. However in the New Testament, the children of God, live under the banner of the teachings of the Kingdom of Heavens, need to be pure in both their thoughts and deeds.
In Christianity, thoughts that lead to evil deeds are condemned in the eyes of God. These evil thoughts are coming from the inner depths. Lord Jesus said, " And He said, "What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornication, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man". [Mary 7:20-23]
Lord Jesus explained the reasons that can lead us to sin, in order that we avoid them. The criminal law commits anyone who begins executing a sin. In the Old Testament, it was specified that a person had to be arrested doing the act of adultery. But it is necessary for me not to permit any evil thought to defile or to conquer my heart.
One of the saints said, "I trained myself, that when Satan comes knocking on the door of my heart, I ask Jesus to come and to guard that door. St. Augustine said that the Bible didn’t mention the word, "desire", but rather said anyone who looked at. Meaning looking with intends to lust. This is not to initiate a sexual desire only, but to execute it. Even if it was controlled then, yet it will be done if the circumstances permit.
Sin has three stages: initiation, enjoyment and doing it. The initiation is based on thoughts, memory, and senses. Senses can be visual, auditory, smell or touching. Enjoyment comes through stimulation. For example, if one is fasting and sees food, this by itself initiates the lust of tasting. This can create an enjoyment. If we surrender, then the sin has been done in the heart. God knows it, though people may not realize it. Lust if was impregnated it will give birth to a sin!
The evil thoughts are dominant in man’s heart. There should be salvation from it. This salvation can be done through the precious Blood of Jesus Christ. There are some conditions for that. We have to:
The evil thoughts: are the intends of the heart, and the intention., that comes from the inner deep. This may appear in fact as obvious acts, if were permitted. If circumstances permit, this makes it a sin.
While the thoughts of a sin are different as it comes from outside. They are like inflammable arrows, aiming us as a target.
The temptation is not a sin itself. Even the holiest of the saints are liable to temptation.
Even God Himself was subject to temptation through thoughts, when Satan:
1-Asked Him to change stone to bread to satisfy His hunger.
2- to throw Himself from the alter to be carried by the angels.
3- to bow to Satan to give Him the Kingdoms of the world.
Here is one example: A chap from Giza had committed a sin. He put on the wall of his room a picture for a naked woman. What would you do with such a person? You can give him some icons for the Virgin Mary or of the saints. You can give him a Bible and see for the result. Well on the second visit, it was noticed that he removed the picture.
To push away his evil thoughts, one has to:
1- Keep his thoughts holy.
2- Keep a Bible near by.
3- Memorize and study Psalms. Pope Shenouda said,
" if you memorize Psalms, Psalms
would guard and protect you"
Protective Ways:
Distance yourself away from the circles of sin.
Escaping from a sin is a sign of courage and not cowardice. Flee from the evil like what Joseph did. Sin is a wrong thing to do. Avoid deception and grandiose.
There is nothing written in the Bible that says, "Bless those who walked through flames and did not burn!"Occupy your time with profitable things. Take every opportunity to improve yourself. Live within a religious surrounding and choose your friends from among the believers, so you can spend with them good spiritual times. This will clear your thoughts and fills your heart with peace.
Practice spiritual activities that include praying, fasting and reading about the lives of the saints.
Memorize Psalms.
This can link you to God and makes you feel His presence.
By the grace of God you will succeed. Do not get desperate, but
call God for help. The Lord will reach you. Jesus Christ will guard your
heart.
The second part of the law reads as, "And if your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell" [Matthew 5:29]
Only God has a unique way for purification. It is the purification of the heart and can be done with repentance and confession, in the presence of a priest.
Jesus told the man He healed, "Go and see the priest". The Holy Spirit purifies our hearts from evil thoughts. The Blood of Christ that was shed on the cross purifies us.
There is another way for purification that we can do it ourselves. God has mentioned this in 2 Corinthians 7:1, "Having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God."
I do believe in our own purification. It is in reference to the verse that said, "And if your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast if from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell"
True, it is the way we should follow. We have to get rid of the old sins, by sacrificing anything, even if it was precious or important to us. Didn’t he mention, "the right eye or the right hand".
We don’t need to have friends or to socialize with those who can lead us to sin. We have to avoid and end our relations totally with them.
The right eye is dear to every person. There is a saying, " I love you as my love to my eye". By the same token, we refer to our right hand as the one that does goodness. But if someone leads you to sin, just get rid of him. Throw him away, as it is better and more profitable to loose someone, than to loose yourself.
It is far better you loose one member than to loose all your body to hell.
If we want to follow that law, then we have to rid ourselves completely from anything that might lead us to sin. Let us get rid of the filthy books that may cause sinful excitement. Someone may say see it differently, but let us read what the Bible tells us about, "Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?"
Listen to what David the prophet said, "Blessed is the man who walks not in the council of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners. Not sits in the seat of the scornful."
Clearly that what was mentioned, was to purify the temple, that is you, so the Holy Spirit can abide in you.
A sin may give a temporary pleasure to a person, but may cost him a high price. Masturbation, practiced mostly by youth, provides a momentary sense of relief, but usually is followed by a sense of guild. A sense that a person had committed a self-adultery, a sense of guilt, that would be better to avoid it.
Here is a symbolic story, about a church member who felt that his service to the church didn’t give him the feeling that it was fruitful. He went to the top of a mountain to address God. He said, " My God I worship You, I pray, I fast. I also give to the poor, how come my service is fruitless? The Lord replied, "You are hiding the keys of your heart from me. How you expect any grace from Me?" He replied to God by confessing that he truly hid the keys from God, but begged Him to take them, so he his service will bring fruits. However, the servant didn’t notice any change and went back to God complaining again. God this time told him, "You kept one key away from me, and this was your favorite sin." The servant replied in tears and said, "That is true my God. I kept one key in my pocket and refused to give it to You! as I can’t go without it. Please God You are the only One Who can put His hand - the hand that was pinned on the cross for my sake- and forcefully take it away from me!"
That is the work of God. If we confess our sins, He will purify us from every evil act, considered unaccepted by God. Our own work is to control any external feeling and only accept what God permits. Let us abandon everything related to the "old man" and reject all earthy deeds to accept the heavenly works.
When the Lord Jesus Christ stretches His hand to take the last key, the heart becomes wide open to Him. God wants your heart as a whole and not just a part of it. He doesn’t want to leave the rest of the heart to suffer from sin. He wants our hearts to follow Him through His path. We need to confess our sins in the presence of a priest.
Some people say, if they follow these rules, them we may fail to find anyone, to take him as a friend. These friends are dear to us and it is difficult to terminate their friendship. They forget that this friendship is dangerous to those who share "the Body of Christ". It is mentioned, "Do not be deceived: ‘Evil company corrupts good habits’". [I Corinthians 15:33]
I remember a story about a father who wanted to give his son a lesson about bad friendship. One day his son came to him to say that he wants to give a party to honor his friends and asked him to have a fat sheep for the dinner party. The father complied with his request and ordered the cook to prepare it for his guests. Just before the guests’ arrival, he told his son that a thief came to steal their house and he had to kill him. That he did put his body in a sac, and asked his son to solicit the help of his friends when they come to get rid of the corpse by throwing it in a far place. The friends came and the son told them what his father told him to say. When they heard this, they were taken with surprise and one after the other left the house in disgust. The father then ordered his son to call a particular person to do this job. This man took the sac and threw it away in a far small river. His son’s friends not only refused to stay, but they went to the police to report what the learned. The police came to investigate and to retrieve the body. To their surprise, they found in the sac the fat roasted sheep! The father told the police that he wanted to give his son a lesson about false friendship. His friends were associated to his son only because of the wealth of the family. They didn’t act like true friends would do.
So let us drop those friends who push you to catastrophes and take you away from God, instead of bringing you nearer to Him.
Stories about purity
Joseph
Joseph was faithful to his God and his master Potiphar. Accordingly God saved him from his ordeal and let him out of prison. Later he became responsible to manage the Egyptian people and the adjacent communities. When he faced the sin, he said, "How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" [Genesis 39:9]
Pope Matthew 87th
In his youth as a shepherd, Satan tried to trick him into sin. A woman was determined to seduce him. He tried to reason with her and asked why she is after him? She replied saying that his eyebrows drive her crazy about him. He went and shaved his eyebrows and told the woman, get out of my way, here is the hair of my eyebrows, take it. His act and his determination not to fall in sin surprised her.
A pure girl
This story is mentioned in the history of the church. A young man tried to persuade a girl to his evil desire. He went to see her at her work place and surprised her by saying that the beauty of her eyes inflames his desire. She took an owl and stuck it into her eye. As she began to hit the other eye, he stopped her and left in shame, heading to the wilderness and later he became a monk.
A beautiful girl at the nunnery
As an invading army was approaching the town, the people picked a beautiful girl, living with the nuns, to give her as a present to the commander of this army. When she was brought to him, she told him that she has blessed oil that if it is put on anyone’s neck, no sword can work on it. He wanted to try it on her. She put the oil over her neck and asked him to hit her neck, as hard as he can, with the sword. He did and her head rolled over the ground, preferring to be killed by the sword than to be defiling her virginity.
A chap refusing to deny his faith
Some unbelievers tied a chap to his bed and brought a loose woman to seduce him by her tricks. He stuck out his tongue and bit it till it bled. Then he spitted the blood into her face. She was frightened and fled away.
Theodora & Didimos
That was in 302 AD and both became martyrs when the ruler ordered those who refuse to burn incense to the pagan gods to be killed. When Theodora refused the order, they put her in an ill-famed house. Didimos then squeezed himself in military uniform and went to this house and was able to smuggle her out. When their escape was discovered, Didimos was condemned to die with the sword. He was taken to the place of execution and Theodora followed him and asked to share the "martyrdom crown" with him and both were killed.
There is only one condition justified by God for divorce. He said also, that who marries a divorced woman, while her former husband is still living, is committing adultery. Without any doubt, this also applies to men.
Divorce, in any other situation than committing adultery is a sin. If a divorced woman remarries, she is still considered married to her first husband, according to God’s law. With the same token, who marries a divorced woman is taking someone’s woman.
God brought man and woman together. He decided not to leave Adam alone, but to give him a companion. That was a Divine decision. What God combined together, no one should separate. This ensures getting blessed holy generations.
Because of the cruelty of hearts, divorce began to exist. God doesn’t like it. It was permissible in the Old Testament to avoid blood shed.
Christ was asked about divorce and He replied, "Furthermore it has been said, ‘Who-ever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce. But I say, to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery." [Matthew 5: 31, 32]
Only just over 50 years ago, it was almost impossible to hear about divorce cases. The late Anba Athanasios, personally told me about a particular divorce case. In his diocese, the Community Council investigated this divorce case. The wife’s lawyer was a Muslim and the case dragged for 18 years without reaching a judgment. Probably the members of the council were hoping that reconciliation between the two parties might be reached. . At last, the five members were fed up with the case and they decided to judge for divorce in the up coming conference. At the opening of the session I asked to have a fifteen minutes recess to be able to meet with the husband and wife alone in an adjacent room. I addressed them saying, " You had been for the last 18 years joined together by Christ’s bond. Do you really want to cut this bond off? My tears came down spontaneously, as I was emotionally deeply saddened. Both of them spontaneously said, "Our bishop don’t cry we accept a reconciliation and they hugged each other. We went back to the meeting room and informed the council, that they now returned peacefully to be husband and wife and the case is closed!" The Muslim lawyer hit the bench in front of him and said loudly, "Now I know why you Christians call marriage a mystery."
The bishop concluded this story by addressing me, that he mentioned it to confirm my belief in marriage.
I read a story, written in an Islamic book about the ruler Gaafar El Mansoury. There was a Christian physician by the name of Bekhtisoua, who was married to a lady who became invalid. One he was late to see the ruler and apologized that he was taking care of his sick wife and told him about her. One Sunday while the physician was attending church, the ruler who used to like this physician sent to his home four Roman women and three thousand Dinnars as a gift. When he returned home, he was shaken by the fact that his assistant accepted the gift for him. He returned the women and the money back to the ruler. The ruler was surprised that he refused the women at a time when his wife was sick and was not capable to offer her marital obligation to her husband. The physician politely told the ruler, that he as a Christian has to have one wife only. The ruler was impressed by his reply and ordered that his entire female household be treated by this physician whenever there is a need for that.
To conclude, we have to remove that "pleasure" from our life if it meant impurity. Remember what was said about loosing a "right eye" or "a right hand" because it is better to loose them, than loosing all the body. Pleasure from a sin, definitely leads to misery at the end. TV series, romantic stories are provocative. Hymns and prayers can replace songs. Remember the dance’s effect, that led a king to kill John the Baptist!