The Ephesian Marriage — Adultery. A Deal Breaker?

Quick thoughts – but you must know, see and understand the parallels that are presented below (also in the Bible)…

Let’s take a quick look –

Israel is God’s chosen people.  Israel is God’s Bride. We know this because God issued Israel a SPIRITUAL bill of divorcement for her SPIRITUAL harlotries committed against God. Harlotries are also known as adulteries. God’s chosen were a wicked nation. They worshipped idols and sacrificed their own children to gods made with human hands. It really doesn’t get much more serious than that. If God is able to graft them back in and restore them unto their rightful place unto Him – and He will — how then can it be said that adultery is the end of a Covenant relationship — whether spiritual or physical? Reference the Book of Hosea. The first part of the book is a biblical account of Hosea and his earthly marriage, and his life as being a living and real-time prophecy of Israel. In other words, his own earthly marriage was a parallel of Israel’s spiritual marriage with her Husband, God. We know that God told Hosea to marry a woman of harlotries who followed her own lusts that lead her to many, many lovers – but it was not her unfaithfulness that was the focal point but rather it was her restoration that is key!! No matter her harlotries, God told Hosea to continue to love his wife and take her back. That is a symbolic parallel of God’s love for his chosen people Israel. Despite God’s condemnation and the harshness of language with which the unavoidable judgment was announced, the major purpose of the Book of Hosea is to proclaim God’s compassion and Covenant love that cannot and will not let His Bride Israel go.

The Church is Christ’s Bride. Ephesians 5:31-32 says marriage emulates salvation of the Church which is an unbreakable Covenant relationship – and when one commits physical (and spiritual) harlotries against their spouse (also represented by Christ, their Groom) — how is it that the Marriage Covenant relationship can be broken?

In the Old Testament – adultery was punishable by death. In the New Testament – adultery is forgiven. Reference the woman caught in the act of adultery and brought before the masses to be stoned to death. Jesus Himself forgave her and set her free. While serious enough in its very nature, it is NOT the unforgiveable and unpardonable sin.

Adultery is not only a physical harlotry, it is also a spiritual harlotry! The one-flesh union between husband and wife is a very mystical spiritual union. In the act of adultery, one takes their oneness with their spouse — which is also their oneness with Christ — and joins it in a spiritual union with another one who is foreign to that oneness between husband and wife and Christ who is one with both. However, even then if it doesn’t break your Covenant relationship with Christ, how then can it break your Covenant relationship with your spouse?

But is adultery only physical and spiritual? The Bible says that if a man even so much as looks at a woman with lust in his heart, he HAS committed adultery with her in his heart. So then it’s also a state of mind. Even so being, it still doesn’t break the Covenant. How many times have we, who belong to Christ and are one with Him, looked at “another.” The longings of the fleshly and carnal mind that makes us lust after things that are not of God — for example, our material idols like our houses and cars. How about our jobs. Maybe our habits. How about the secret things like running with a crowd we know has nothing to do with God that are doing some very serious deeds of darkness? Disloyalty to God on ANY level is spiritual adultery — and is no different than what Israel did when they worshipped the Baal’s and sacrificed their children on the pagan high places and then had sex in the temple with the temple prostitutes.

Folks, if what you are doing is NOT borne of the fruit of the Spirit, then it’s a SPIRITUAL harlotry. You have just committed adultery against your God! You were unfaithful to Him as a bride or groom is to their earthly spouse…

Question. For those who refuse to forgive their unfaithful spouse and love them back to their spiritual oneness through the pure love and power and mercy of their own blood-bought forgiveness – how do you think God should handle your spiritual harlotries?

Know this: What you use to measure and judge one by, God will surely use that same measure to mete out your judgment…

Are you and I really in the position to build our own throne?

…think about that…

–Celia Ann

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