Unfaithful Men

Jun 18th, 2011 | By | Category: Christian Life, Featured Issues

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Over the last few years, a surge of tragic stories about unfaithful men has inundated the media.  A few examples:

  • Arnold Schwarzenegger fathered a child with a longtime member of his household staff.
  • Newt Gingrich led the impeachment against President Bill Clinton while carrying on an affair with a staff member.
  • Tiger Woods had multiple mistresses.
  • John Edwards fathered a child with Rielle Hunter, a video producer for his 2008 campaign for the presidency.
  • New York Congressman Anthony Weiner?s bizarre social networking immoralities are difficult to fathom.

One could go on!

To one degree or another, each one of these men is being held accountable, some more severely than others.  But what should be our response as Christians?  Two thoughts:

  1. We must exhibit a measure of compassion, grace and mercy to such men.  God can use each one of their indiscretions to break them of their hard-heartedness and bring them to faith.  May God, who is rich in mercy, do so.
  2. Such tragic lives must also drive us to Scripture.  For example, Ephesians 5:22-33 stipulates the operative terms that define a husband?s role in marriage.  The husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church.  That kind of love is self-sacrificing, other-centered and completely consuming.  If a man truly loves his wife in that manner, there will be no infidelity, no loose talking and no adultery.  If the standard is ?as Christ loved the church,? can one imagine Jesus ever being unfaithful to His church?  God is calling on men to do something radical in marriage ? be utterly devoted and committed to the woman God gave him in marriage.  The challenge is that our culture no longer believes this nor affirms this.  We are thereby living with the consequences of abandoning this standard.  God has designed the respective roles in marriage and empowers each partner to live according to His well-articulated standards.  When culture no longer abides by these standards, unfaithfulness results.  We are seeing increasing examples of the reluctance to hold men to the standard God holds them.  Until and unless American men seek the face of God, there will be ongoing and persistent failures.  God has ?given us over? (see Romans 1:24-32) to the natural consequences of the failure to follow His norm for marriage.  We should not be surprised! PRINT PDF

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One Comment to “Unfaithful Men”

  1. Charlene R. Ellis says:
    June 20, 2011 at 7:48 pm

    I think observing our culture and the infidelity, adultery, lying and greed among those who claim to be leaders of our nation is heartbreaking. It is discouraging. To whom can we go for protection and a covering? Only the Lord God. Our standards have slipped so low and there are no godly moral leaders to encourage our children to have a higher goal in life. As I see the heartbreak of divorce and wayward husbands and mothers even in the church, along with our nation, it is taking us down the long road that Israel/Judah went down back in the Kings and Chronicles. Oh that our men would cry out to God as Daniel did in his prayer. And even though Josiah managed to have a heart for the Lord like no other, it was too late. Yes, God has given us over…and the natural consequences as you state above are coming down upon America as well as the rest of the nations.