A few weeks ago, I ministered to the staff members in my farm on the repercussion of fornication and adultery. Many people from cradle, I reminded them, indulge in these sinful acts. They are unmindful since they see their elderly ones, and perhaps, their parents, indulging in them. I remember how, in 1973, I met a school girl, in school uniform, in one of my in-law’s store. I did not imagine the worst till he gave me a sign not to disclose what I saw. If I obeyed, God did not.

‘Will God forgive someone, who committed adultery?’ a staff member asked. me. My response was quick and in the positive, for there is no confessed sin God will not forgive. It is important to note however, that the acceptable confession to Him is the one made from the heart and not merely from the lips. King Saul came to kill David in 1Sam 24. David confronted him and he wept, telling David that he [David] was more righteous than him, ‘For thou hast rewarded me good, whereas, I have rewarded thee evil’. Not long after in 1Sam 26, he mustered arms again in pursuit of David, who spared his life as he did before. Hear him again, ‘I have sinned’. He did not give up. When the Prodigal Son told his Dad, ‘Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son’, he lived to it.

I told them how David, the man after God’s heart, was caught in the web. The drama that went before the confrontation and his subsequent confession shows how we condemn people easily for their misdeeds, though we are not free from the mud. The good news is that, unlike his colleagues in the comfort zone, David owned up the sins and God forgave him. God however, told him that the sword would not depart from his family. ’I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house,’ God told him, ‘because thou hast despised Me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah…’

My children may do some evil deeds and if they repent of them, God will forgive them absolutely. If I did the same, God will also forgive me if I repent but there is a price I have to pay for bringing shame to His name because I ought to know better. If I commit adultery, by implication, as a Minister of God, I am telling my partner-in-crime that she should not mind God or His Word. The lady will be so hardened in her heart against the Word of God that it will be difficult, very difficult, for her to repent of that evil. This is why Satan targets the Ministers of God and makes them to fall to the sin of sexual immorality. David paid for the sin he committed as God had told him. Amnon, his son, raped Tamar, his half-sister. Absalom, her elder brother, in revenge, murdered Amnon. Absalom also took up arms against David. Joab, the General Officer Commanding, killed the youth. These are some of the physical consequences that can be available for those, who engage in immoral sexual pleasure.

God for sure, will forgive the offender but he may find it difficult to forgive himself as he recalls God’s goodness towards him and how he has paid Him back with evil. Satan will be reminding him of the gravity of his sin and will be doing his utmost to ensure he will never believe that God will forgive him. We should also note that it was the same Satan, who induced him to sin, assuring him that it did not matter or that God would understand. The way out is never to listen to him as I did on April 23, 1972, when I was only a week old in the Lord. He sent his daughter to me in UNEC, a graduate of the same university, who had just bought a car. Had I compromised my faith, I would not be writing this Column.

It is sinful to believe Satan in all his fancies in making us believe in him instead of believing God’s Word. If God says that He has forgiven us, it is unbelief not to accept it and then forgive ourselves. Instead of self-pity, we should rather make up our mind, like David, never to repeat any sin God has forgiven us. This is what true repentance means. Judas and Peter sinned against God. Judas sold Jesus and Peter denied Him openly on oath. Peter repented and returned to the fold.  Judas did not. Worried by the consequences of his act, he committed suicide, having no confidence in the Lord Jesus.

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Contentment is a Christian virtue we should desire. God knows that one woman is enough for a man and that was why He gave him Eve and Eve alone. In the same vein, He gave Adam, and Adam alone, to Eve. Any other arrangement is strange to Him and obviously a violation to His Word.

Adultery is a sin that breaks the home. Imagine a lady, who is contented in living with her husband in the most humble manner in their one room. One day, her he travelled. Her boss takes her to a prominent hotel, where for the first time she slept in an air-conditioned room. It was the first time she was served lavish dinner. When she was going home in the morning, she was given a bag full of apples, and that was a woman, whose family of three would share one apple once in a blue moon! She could not believe herself, when she opened the fat envelop her boss had given her. It was twice what her spouse was earning in the month, with a promise of been scheduled for a course in the US. Has her marriage not been damaged by her randy boss? If he expressed an opinion and her husband gave a counter one, who would she obey?

Sin should be avoided and while we do not rationalize it, Jesus said that in other types of sins, we sin against God and man but in fornication and adultery, we also sin against ourselves. The woman, you may be sleeping with is another man’s wife. The way you will feel if someone sleeps with your wife, is the way he feels, irrespective of your station in life. This is also true of the girl you may be sleeping with. She is someone’s daughter and tomorrow, she will be another man’s wife. Fornication and adultery are sinful acts not only to the parents or husbands of the ladies but a way of teaching the victims evil. God cannot therefore be pleased with you.

God’s children resist the devil at all cost. A girl told me how a Lecturer wanted to sleep with her. When she turned down his amorous advances, he boasted that he had been sleeping with US and English ladies and none of them ever resisted him. In response, she told him that he could be sleeping with all sorts of ladies in the world, including Miss World, but that he would not sleep with her. And he did not.

For further comment, Please contact: Osondu Anyalechi:  0802 3002-471; [email protected]