A Note from Michael Gossett
A Year of Faithfulness
Exodus 20:14 says, “Do not commit adultery.”
To me, the day after Christmas always feels a little strange. The tree is still up (unless you are one of those people), but the presents are gone. Maybe family has gone back home, there might be some leftovers in the fridge, but the Hallmark Channel no longer has your attention. For many, this space between Christmas and the New Year becomes a moment of honesty. We start asking questions of reflection about the past year and where we are going in the upcoming year.
It is fitting, then, that we come to the Seventh Commandment at this moment. After celebrating the coming of Christ, Scripture turns our attention to faithfulness. Not merely faithfulness in belief, but faithfulness in life. Not only faithfulness to God in worship, but faithfulness to God in the most intimate and ordinary spaces of human existence.
When God says, “Do not commit adultery,” He is not issuing a narrow rule aimed only at marital misconduct. He is revealing His design for covenant faithfulness. He is teaching His people how to live as those who belong to Him in a world that treats desire as ultimate and commitment as optional.
As we look to the new year, this commandment calls us to consider what kind of people we are becoming and what kind of lives we are ordering before the Lord.
Guarding Faithfulness
When God commands His people not to commit adultery, He is not just protecting marriages from being broken, He is protecting the concept of covenantal fidelity. Sexual faithfulness is not an isolated moral issue. It is bound up with how God relates to His people and how His people are meant to reflect Him in the world.
From the opening pages of Scripture, marriage is presented as covenantal before it is contractual. Genesis 2 does not describe a negotiated agreement but a divine joining. God Himself brings the man and woman together and declares them one flesh. This union is exclusive, enduring, and deeply personal. It is meant to mirror something greater than human companionship.
Throughout Scripture, God repeatedly describes His relationship with His people in marital terms. He is a faithful husband. Israel is an often-wandering bride. Adultery becomes the Bible’s primary metaphor for spiritual unfaithfulness because covenant betrayal is the deepest possible relational fracture. When God forbids adultery, He is guarding a living parable of His own faithfulness.
This is why sexual sin is never treated casually in Scripture. It is not only a misuse of desire but a distortion of loyalty. It takes what was meant to display covenant love and turns it inward, making desire the final authority. Faithfulness, on the other hand, orders desire under promise. It teaches the soul to love rightly, patiently, and sacrificially.
Proverbs 5 makes this clear when it calls a husband to delight in his wife within the covenant, not apart from it. Desire is not the enemy. Disorder is. God guards sexual faithfulness because He guards covenant love, and covenant love is one of the clearest reflections of His own character.
The Battle for Integrity
Jesus intensifies the Seventh Commandment because He understands where unfaithfulness begins. In Matthew 5, He teaches that adultery is a direction chosen by the heart. Matthew 5:27-28 says, “You have heard that is was said, Do not commit adultery. But I tell you, everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
Jesus is not equating temptation with guilt. Scripture is helping us understand that adultery is the willful cultivation of desire that disregards God’s design. Lust is not accidental. It is rehearsed, imagined, and often defended long before it is acted upon.
This is where the Seventh Commandment confronts us most directly in a post-Christmas, pre-New Year moment. The question is not simply whether we have crossed physical lines. The question is whether or not we have allowed our inner life to drift. Integrity is not measured only by what others see, but what we permit our hearts to dwell on when no one else is watching.
Jonathan Edwards wrote his resolutions about inward alignment instead of outward appearances. It was process-oriented rather than outcome-oriented. He resolved to live in such a way that he would not be ashamed at the end of his life. He resolved to act, speak, and think as one who would soon stand before God. Edwards recognized that holiness is not achieved by his intentions, but by God’s grace of allowing him to be shaped by eternity.
The Seventh Commandment calls for that same seriousness. Not legalism, but resolve. This is being vigilant in the things of Christ above everything else. It is a resolve to live putting all sinfulness to death rather than flirting with the lines.
Shape Your New Year
Ultimately, the Seventh Commandment finds its fulfillment in the faithfulness of Christ. Jesus is presented throughout the New Testament as the Bridegroom who never wanders, never betrays, and never abandons His bride. Where human faithfulness falters, His remains perfect.
Ephesians 5 grounds Christian marriage in the self-giving love of Christ. Husbands are called to love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her. That love is not driven by impulse. It is marked by sacrifice, patience, and covenant commitment.
This matters deeply for those who carry regret. Sexual sin leaves real wounds. Broken trust is not imaginary. Scripture never minimizes the damage. But the gospel declares that failure in your life will never have the final word over your life. The same Christ who demands faithfulness also provides cleansing, restoration, and power for obedience.
The day after Christmas naturally turns our attention forward. We think about resolutions, habits, and changes. The Seventh Commandment invites us to something better than surface-level self-improvement. It invites us to a life shaped by covenant resolve. This does not mean promising perfection. It means committing to obedience. Committing to biblical community for accountability. Committing to prayer for strength. Committing to being daily in the Word for wisdom. It means ordering our lives around biblical values and then letting the rest of the calendar and our day work around those values.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says, “Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. So glorify God with your body.” This is a declaration of our identity in Christ!
As we step into the New Year, what changes do you honestly need to make in order to increase your faithfulness to the Lord, to your family, to your marriage, or to your church? It is sustained by grace, discipline, and a clear vision of the Bridegroom who will one day present His bride spotless and whole.
That is a resolution worth making.
Sunday, December 28
This Sunday, we will have an abbreviated schedule with one combined Worship Service at 10 am and no Connect Groups. We will see you then!
Reminder: This Wednesday, we will have our weekly Prayer Gathering in the home. Take some time to pray together as a family, with your Connect Group, or with friends or a neighbor. To help you in your prayer time, we have put together this resource to serve as a guide.
CLICK HERE FOR THE NEW YEARS EVE PRAYER GUIDE
You are loved and prayed for!
Michael Gossett