elohiym said:
I think it is sad you cannot just answer "no" with confidence. My wife knows that it is impossible for me to ever commit adultery.
Then you are setting yourself up for a fall. It is never impossible for someone to mess up and blow it. Usually pride comes before a fall.
Proverbs 11:2
2 When pride comes, then comes shame;
But with the humble is wisdom.
Proverbs 16:18
18 Pride goes before destruction,
And a haughty spirit before a fall.
I'm curious why you don't have the desire to do commit adultery. Can you explain that?
Sure the Holy Spirit of God has changed me and made me into a new person. Before I was saved, I could care less about God or what God wanted for me and my life.
When I gave my heart and my life to Jesus Christ He changed me from the inside out.
As a young believer I struggled with the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes, but God granted me victory over a lot of those struggles. Do I still go through struggles? Sure, but thankfully
lustful thoughts are no longer among them. Plus I do everything I can to keep myself from temptation.
I avoid watching and seeing thngs that might cause me to stumble, and give my flesh an excuse to sin.
The next few statements you make just blow my mind, but to refresh, I said:
PastorKevin said:
You have to remember that Jesus made it clear that to look on a woman with lust in your heart is also adultery.
To which you AMAZINGLY replied:
elohiym said:
I don't think you understand what Jesus actually meant by his statement, and you're probably reading into it your own subjective moral code.
No, Elohiym, I understand completely what Jesus ACTUALLY meant by His statement, He was pretty clear:
Matthew 5:27-28
27 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
I'm not sure how much more clear Jesus could have been. Do you question Him on this issue?
When David saw Bathsheba, before he knew she was Uriah's wife, he was obviously very attracted to her.
Exactly. He lusted after her.
Elohiym said:
His lust began, not with his attraction, but after he learned she was another man's wife and desired to take her for himself.
I'm sorry, this is just one of the screwiest definitions of lust I have ever seen! So lust doesn't become lust until you find out the woman is someone else's wife? What kinda screwy stuff is that?
Since I was born of God I haven't lusted after another man's wife, and never will.
I hope for your sake you are being honest. My guess is you are just giving your lust a redefinition, kind of like a "Makeover". As long as Elohiym doesn't call it lust, then he is ok to lust right?
Let's see if further in your response we find this to be the case:
elohiym said:
I have looked at, and will look at pretty women; and I will always look at pretty women and be aroused by them;
BINGO! There it is.
You will ALWAYS look at pretty women and be aroused by them? Are you serious?
That is lust man.
Nothing says
you always have to be aroused every time you see a pretty woman. I sure wouldn't want my wife or my daughter (when she grows up) attending a church where you attend, where you'd just be undressing them with your eyes and making excuses for it by saying it isn't lust it's just arousal. This is without a doubt one of the most twisted statements ever.
Talk about making excuses for sin man!
and I thank God that he made women so beautiful.
You should thank God that He made your WIFE beautiful you pervert!
God made me that way so I would "be fruitful and multiply."
No you should be desiring
your wife and only your wife once you are married. Instead you are making excuses for your sin. Now I see why you are so dogmatic to assert that you are without sin.
God gave David all his wives and an attraction for all of them before and after he married them. He was only at fault for lusting after and taking another man's wife.
God never approved of any man to have more than one wife. Anytime they did,
they always paid for it. Look at Solomon for an example of that. The wisest and most blessed man on the earth, and what happened to him? His multiple wives brought him down!
Are you now saying you would be ok and justified to have more than one wife? I hope not!
The problem I see with many is that they have labeled God given attraction for the opposite sex as lust or sin, which is a false doctrine.
The exact word you used before was not "attraction".
It was AROUSEL! Arousel is completely different than attraction. But even then, you should be crucifying your flesh and confining your "attractions" to your wife and only your wife! And to think you were actually trying to level accusations at me!
They end up believing they commit adultery all the time, or actually commit adultery if they believe they have a license to sin.
Your theology has so
twisted you up, and I mean twisted you up, that you have excused yourself in your own private lustful thoughts, and given them new definitions, and made it ok for you to sin in your heart and get away with it. Wow!
Now help me understand what you mean exactly. Do you not find any other women but your wife attractive,
No! I do NOT! I don't think of any other woman but my wife in that way. Period! As I shared as a young believer I had to learn to grow through my lustful thoughts, and the Holy Spirit helped me overcome those thoughts with the help of a loving and kind wife. And now I don't struggle with those thoughts at all. And I hope to say I will never have that type of thought for another woman again, but
any man is capable of falling at any time. I could tomorrow accidentally come across a picture or a video of a naked woman and have a lustful thought. Any man could.
To think you can NEVER fall or NEVER fail is just plain arrogance, and judging by what you just said above,
you fall just as much as most men because you actually said that you will ALWAYS "look at pretty women and be aroused by them".
Wow! I still cannot get over that statement, and how you can claim that you never slip up in the same breath. You are really deceived man! Seriously! I don't say that to disparage you at all, so don't start playing the martyr!
or does your statement relate to lack of desire to commit adultery now? Again, help me to understand why you no longer have that desire.
Explained above.
I think if you can explain that, then you will understand what I mean by a converted heart, and know why I doubt you will ever be able to commit adultery in the future.
You are every time you "always look at pretty women" and are "aroused by them". Every SINGLE time you do that you are committing adultery man.
That's why marriage is such a blessing. Good for you! I have had a similar experience.
Not if you haven't learned to crucify your arousel you have not.
As for my past, I was an adulterer in my first marriage, multiple times.
I'm sorry to hear that. Truly I am.
So now: no. Past: yes--many times. Future: not a chance.
Only because you have redefined that sin of the heart and made it to not be sin. Physical adultery isn't the only type of adultery my friend.
Jesus wasn't. See this is where we disagree. It has to do with why you don't desire to commit adultery now, what is motivating you now.
The Spirit of God overcoming my flesh and allowing HIM to have victory in my life. The exact same power and principle that allowed me to go from being a chain smoker to being delivered completely from the addiction and the temptation to smoke.
If it self-righteousness, then you just want to be praised for your right choices, and in time you will commit adultery (not can but will).
That is where you are wrong. It is the righteousness of God in me. The Holy Spirit who dwells within me and convicts me of sin when I have sinful thoughts.
If it is the Holy Spirit which dwells in you that is constraining you (love), and I'm sure you love your wife, then I will bet that you NEVER can possibly commit adultery again.
You are right in that if I am being obedient to the Spirit and not the flesh then I would never commit adultery again (not even in thoughts or arousels).
But the flesh is a beast that we fight with until our dying day.
And out of curiosity, if either one of the options could be true, which one would you hope was true. We both know the answer to that, and that is exactly what your merciful heavenly Father has done for you.
He has given me
actual victory over sins in my life Elohiym.
Not because I get to redefine them and not call them sins anymore. But ACTUAL victories! Victories over drug, alcohol, smoking, lust, you name it and I once did it all. But praise be to God He has changed me. That change comes from the INSIDE out!
It isn't just changing OUTWARD behaviors. That is NOT crucifying the flesh Elohiym!
The Bible actually describes several perfect men, PK. Job was perfect (Job 1:8), Noah was perfect (Gen 6:9), Enoch, etc.
:doh: In those instances the meaning from the texts is that they were "mature" and that they "walked with God". Blameless meaning that men did not have reason to accuse them, and God knew their hearts and knew them to be Godly men who loved Him.
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God Elohiym. (Romans 3:10,23)
They were not perfect in the flesh. They were perfect in spirit. Similarly, I am not perfect in flesh, but perfect in spirit. My flesh is sinful, but I am sinless, because I am born of God.
This is where you guys are wrong. You are not TWO people Elohiym. You are one person! If you sin it is YOU sinning. Granted when you sin you are not walking in the Spirit but in the flesh, but it is still YOU Elohiym sinning. It isn't the Holy Spirit sinning.
Salvation is based on righteousness, and adulterers are not righteous.
They are unrighteous. The unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
You are right that salvation is based on righteousness, and the Bible says that there are NONE righteous, no NOT ONE! When a person gets saved God DECLARES them righteous in HIS SIGHT. That is what justification is. God declaring a guilty sinner to be righteous in HIS SIGHT!
Salvation is based on righteousness. The only righteousness God accepts is HIS OWN!
Paul was very clear, and he said "be not deceived."
And yet you have been, sir. I hope you will see that!
Don't you think the capacity to love, you received by the Holy Spirit, is powerful enough to bridle your flesh? If it isn't powerful enough to do that, why do you think it will be powerful enough to raise the dead?
I haven't been raised from the dead YET Elohiym. Neither have you. We still live in these bodies that are sinful.