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.

This law business

After Matthew 5:27-32 

OK, I get it, I think,

this business about

obedience to the law,

with the law being

both letter and spirit.

But what are you

saying here, what’s

the point? If I hear

you correctly, you’re

telling us that thew law

expresses the lawgiver’s

character, his mind, and

we are so far removed

that we can barely fathom

what’s here, much less 

actually obey and do it.

So, if all of that is true,

are we without hope?

Are we simply to muddle

along, live our lives,

and die? If we can’t do

this for ourselves, can

anyone do it for us?

 

Photograph by Mohamed Nohassi via Unsplash. Used with permission.

It's the spirit

After Matthew 5:27-32 

Sitting on the hillside,

speaking one mind-bending

statement after another,

he comes to the subjects,

bookended, as it were, 

of universal interest:

adultery, marriage, lust,

divorce, and then

adultery (again). He’s

punching home his

argument about the law:

it’s not only the letter

of the law that’s the issue;

it’s also the spirit of the law.

It’s not sufficient to avoid

adultery and give yourself

a well-earned pat on the back;

it’s also the idea , the action,

of even looking with wrong

motives. It’s as if you want

to be congratulated for not

beating your wife. And

ditto for divorce.

 

Photograph by Josh Marshall via Unsplash. Used with permission.