I was talking to a ex Mormon friend of mine today and we started talking about adultery. We have noticed that some religions will not accept you if you have committed adultery,
It depends on what you mean when you say “accept you if you have committed adultery.” I can accept that such a person is a human being that has fallen into sin but even so is still loved by God and should be loved by me as well. I can love that person, but part of loving someone is loving them enough to be truthful with them.
For example, a church must preach that adultery is wrong and that it is sinful. A church must call those who have committed such a sin to repentance. A church that does that is not “rejecting” that person no more than Christ was “rejecting” the woman caught in adultery when he saved her from being stoned yet still told her to “go and sin no more.” We should accept all people because Christ accepts all people, but the church cannot and must not ignore the sin in people’s lives.
Sin must be confronted.
for example. If a man is separated from his wife for 4 years but he lives with his girlfriend and cannot afford divorce.
Such a person is living in sin. If he loves his girlfriend, you’d think he’d respect her enough to not make her a party to his adultery.
This man needs to repent and get his life in order. He needs to be in church, of course. And the church should “accept him” as a human being deserving of compassion and respect. Yet, the church also needs to “accept” that until he ceases to live in adultery that he cannot be a member in good standing.
The church that calls people to repent of sin is not being “mean” or “nasty” or “cruel.” The truth is that by living in adultery, this man is bringing himself under the judgment of God. Hebrews 13:4 says, “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.”
It would be far more crueler to not let this person know that he is living in sin and God will judge him for it.
Also if a woman or man has children out of wedlock.
We love them, and we certainly do not hold the sins of the mother or the father against the children. The children have done nothing wrong. To the parent(s), we love them, and we teach them that sex outside of marriage is wrong and encourage them to be married or live celibately.
What are your views on adultery? Do you still invite them to church or do you spit on them and walk away?
Of course you invite them to church. They need church more than anything. However, until they show signs of repentance and a change in their lives, don’t expect them to be teaching Sunday School.
