What is Spiritual Adultery?

Spiritual adultery is when a Christian or anyone for that matter is married to the world, rather than to Christ. In James 4 it reads “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions[a] are at war within you?[b] 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You adulterous people![c] Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”

When our motivation is wrong and we desire the things that God provides rather than God himself, the bible calls this spiritual adultery. In Isaiah 54:5-8 the Lord is referred to Israel as her husband, in the new covenant the church is the Bride of Christ. In an adulterous relationship a spouse becomes unfaithful and usually joins themselves to another person. The spouse who was cheated on is usually not obligated to continue providing for the needs for the unfaithful spouse, only in rare circumstances would he continue to cloth and feed the unfaithful spouse because he is compassionate. The Lord is the same way, when we marry ourselves to the world, and desire our happiness first other than putting the Lord first, we become like that unfaithful spouse who is living with another person and still desires their peace and the Blessings of the Lord.

The Lord is not obligated to bless us when we claim to know him, but our motives for His blessings are wrong. God knows if He gave us the healing, or the break in our finances, or the whatever, we would spend them wrongly or use our lives and our blessings for selfish purposes, rather than living a life that is pleasing to God. Unless we repent God says we are His enemies, and as enemies we forfeit all of the good that God wants to bring into our lives. This is Mike.

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