Avoiding Adultery

The Problem

• Our culture provides more options than ever before to connect with numerous people.
• A potential affair does a masterful job of highlighting the momentary pleasure while disguising the long-term pain for yourself and others.
• No fling is worth the damage it will create.
• No pleasure is worth disdain from those who love you most.
• Once you get the person you desire, he or she can no longer be desirable.
• Adultery creates a pocket universe where you and another person are united to stay isolated.
• To commit to a person who is willing to commit adultery with you is to start a relationship with a person you cannot trust.

The Path

• Adultery’s Progression (Proverbs 6:24-29)
  • Words – Inappropriate relationships often begin with flirtatious communication (6:24).
  • Looks – If you do not challenge stares, you deepen an obsession that builds in a desire for physical culmination (6:25).
  • Actions – Once one person initiates, it prioritizes a forbidden relationship over a forever commitment.
• Adultery’s Consequences (Proverbs 6:30-35)
  • Your Family – You do irreversible damage to your family when choosing a forbidden relationship over your godly commitments (6:30-31).
  • Yourself – Putting yourself first is the worst thing you can do (6:32).
  • Your Reputation – God and possibly a family can provide forgiveness, but that does not remove the consequences of adultery (6:33).
  • Your Witness – You tarnish your ability to share Jesus with any family you have devastated by your actions.

The Progression

1. Distanced from God
   1. A steady slide away from pursuing God will cause you to seek other things.
   2. No one who is caught in an affair has a current and vibrant relationship with Jesus.
2. Dishonest with Accountability
   1. People who have affairs may attend religious gatherings and groups, but they rarely have personal accountability.
   2. If no one knows how you are spiritually, you ask for trouble.
3. Disconnected from Spouse
   1. Marriage requires ongoing intentionality, or else we will slide into complacent association.
   2. If a couple neglects to meet each other’s emotional, physical, and relational needs, one might become irrationally justified in seeing them met somewhere else.
4. Distinguished a Friendship
   1. Most affairs begin with two people having isolated interactions based on encouragement that turns into flattery.
   2. Adultery often becomes a possibility as the two meet each other’s emotional needs long before they become physically active.