Five words

After Exodus 20:14 and Matthew 5:27-28 

A message telegraphed

in five words, miscroscoped

like so many messages

into summary simplicity,

meaning more than

its words say. That word,

adultery, means what it

says, its formal definition

of being unfaithful to the one

selected for you, the one 

you loved, the one who loved

you, the one provided to you

to come alongside to be one,

one flesh, the oneness pointing

to the kingdom.

 

And it means more, a synonym

for faithfulness in life, faithful

in all things, to all people,

faithful to your spouse,

your children, your family,

your parents, your friends,

your church, your work,

your society, your culture,

your God. An impossible

standard, only brought

to reality by the One.

 

Photograph by Clay Banks via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

Four Years After Our Hardest Day – Tim Challies.

 

The School of Faith – When God’s Ways Are a Mystery – Sarah Walton at Set Apart.

 

The Flight from God, & a Flight into the Country – Michael De Sapio at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Psalm 23 – Megan Willome.