Being busy with a sermon dealing with LD 41, HC ("What does the seventh commandment teach us?) it was brought home to me again in a wonderful way how wholesome for life God's commandments are, including the seventh commandment.
In the beginning God created everything beautifully, also in creating man male and female including the special feelings that come with it, emotionally, hormonally and so on. It's good to stress this in a society which is dominated by the term 'equality', equal rights both for men and women. Today people don't want to hear about the fact that God created male and female differently with the aim that they could complement each other beautifully in perfect harmony, not only in marriage, but also beyond marriage in the wider context of society.
Playing on man's sinful desires, today's society offers nothing else but a twisted picture of what God once created beautifully. So easily this can also affect our thinking. In this context I think in particular of how society interprets the word 'love' and speaks about sexual matters in a way that is complete focused on self-pleasure.
How would you describe the word 'love'? Scripture teaches love is an unconditional, self-denying, total commitment for life in good days and bad, in health and sickness, in riches and poverty as long as husband ans wife shall live.
Considering this, are we still willing to learn and practise what Scripture teaches about the beauty of marriage? Are we willing to fight for our marriage also when there are struggles? Note that in Christ there is restoration for every broken marriage.
The seventh commandment addresses equally also those who are single. We all are called to live holy. Single people too have their sexual feelings and by the power of the Holy Spirit they too have to control these feeling equally as much as married people.
I would like to add that in a similar way they too are called to use the gift of being created either as male or as female to the glory of God, also in their single state.
We often look at God's commandment negatively in what God forbids. Yet working on this sermon it reminded me again that we should look more at God's commandments positively, how we in honouring them we can bring glory to God, but also how in honouring them we can be a salt in the midst of today's corrupt society.
May God help all of us to stay focused on the beauty of sexual differences and also how to use these differences to the glory of God and the society we live in. Highlighting these differences has nothing to do with discriminating the female gender, instead noting these differences is wholesome for life in every respect.
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