Introduction

INTRODUCTION

And he answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning „made them male and female,‟ and said, „For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and two shall become one flesh‟? “So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”(Matthew 19:4-6) The words, "It is not good that the man should be alone" have reverberated down through time to the present (Gen. 2: 18). Based on man being a social being, God created woman and instituted marriage (Gen. 2: 18: 25). As two people walk down the aisle and they promise to love one another “till death do they part” they are announcing that for the rest of their lives they will only love their spouse and never stray from their loved ones. Yet research has found that more and more spouses have broken their vows of keeping their marriage true and sacred to one another. Marrying a second wife or husband without scriptural grounds for divorce from the first is adultery because the first marriage still exists. Thus, consensual sexual intercourse between two people not married to each other and is a crime against chastity. Committing adultery is not uncommon to say the least. Adultery seems more rampant than ever these days. Society has come up with phrases which excuse or soften the perception of adultery such as fooling around, sleeping around, and having a fling or an affair. These phrases try to justify adultery as being guilt-free and as if it hurts no one when in actually it hurts all involved. Adultery shatters trust, intimacy, self-

esteem; it breaks up families, ruins careers and leaves a trail of pain and destruction in its path. For men and women there are many reasons they have committed or are committing adultery. For the most part many who have affairs have good sex life but come from marriages with little no intimacy. When a spouses needs are not met many marriages tend to become more vulnerable to an extramarital affair. Often the failure of men and women to meet each other’s needs is due to the lack of knowledge rather than a selfish unwillingness to be considerate. No one commits adultery without first being able to justify their behavior to themselves. The problem with such justifications is they are falsehoods, a way of engaging in bad behavior without having to think about the consequences of the adultery to others. The adulterer lives in a mythical, storybook world. The realities of their actions are far different than the “reality” they create to justify the adultery. Millions around the world commit adultery or fornication with no remorse. Even government officials, religious leaders, top businessmen, sports figures and entertainment icons acknowledge their adulterous lifestyles. In the meantime, if current trends continue, sexual immorality will continue with all its aberrations and perversions.