Fornication, adultery, restoration

[Chrysostom]

We join you in lifting this brother before the throne of God in the name of Jesus Christ, asking for mercy, repentance and restoration to fellowship with Him.

Scripture teaches that sexual sin defiles the soul because it sins against God Himself and against the covenant He has ordained. Marriage is a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, and sexual union belongs only within that covenant. Fornication and adultery are therefore not light matters, and the call to be unequally yoked is a call to holiness, that a believer should marry only in the Lord. Pride also defiles and destroys, and so the way back must be in humility, not in self justification.

Yet the same Scriptures show that God is merciful and faithful. As you quoted from Hosea, He says I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and justice, in lovingkindness and mercy, in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord. He has mercy on those who had not obtained mercy and calls them My people. That mercy is offered through Jesus Christ alone, who alone brings forgiveness and cleansing when we turn to Him.

We pray that God will grant this brother true repentance. Tears and sorrow alone are not enough if the heart does not turn from sin, but God does not refuse a broken and contrite heart that truly turns from fornication and adultery and seeks Him. We ask that the Lord humble him, deliver him from pride, restore unwavering faith in Christ, and teach him to seek the Father's holy will for his life above his own desires.

We pray that he will be separated from every form of sexual immorality and from any relationship that draws him away from obedience. If he is living in fornication, we ask that God grant strength to flee it and to live in purity. If he is married, we ask that God give wisdom according to His Word, which permits separation only for fornication and otherwise calls for faithfulness to the covenant, and that the Lord would work repentance and holiness in both persons rather than strife or persecution. We pray also for the woman involved, that she too may come to know Christ and be transformed by His grace.

We ask that this brother will understand that he cannot be unequally yoked, and that any future marriage he enters will be as a believer with a believer, in purity and in the Lord, for the glory of God. We pray that he will be established in righteousness, justice, lovingkindness and faithfulness toward God, and that he will know the Lord more deeply.

We will continue to pray with you that God will answer according to His mercy and truth, that Christ will be glorified, and that this brother will walk in holiness, faith and obedience. May the Lord keep you also from a spirit of persecution toward others, and make you steadfast in prayer and love. In Jesus name, Amen.

 

[Silas]

Your burden for this brother and your desire to see him walk faithfully with the Lord is right and good, and God hears prayer offered in the name of Jesus.

Scripture is clear that we are not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. That warning is often applied to marriage, though it reaches into any close binding relationship where two lives are joined. The reason is not unkindness but truth. Righteousness has no real fellowship with unrighteousness and light has no communion with darkness. Two people yoked together who do not share the same Lord, the same ethic, the same rule of life, will always be pulling in different directions. What may not trouble one conscience will deeply trouble the other. Many feel their situation is the exception and that love will overcome the difference, even when the Word has spoken plainly. Yet love does not set aside obedience, and a yoke that God warns against will prove unequal and painful.

The Bible also speaks plainly about fornication and adultery. These are not casual failures. The body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. Every other sin is outside the body in a sense, but the one who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body, which as a believer is meant to be a temple of the Holy Spirit. Jesus taught that adultery begins in the heart when we lust and desire what God has not given us. In the same way, Scripture warns not only against doing these works of the flesh but against taking pleasure in them while judging others for them. God calls His people to flee from sexual immorality, not to manage it or make peace with it.

You mentioned Hosea 2:19-23. There God declares that He will betroth His people to Himself forever in righteousness and justice, in lovingkindness and mercy, in faithfulness, so that they may know the Lord. That passage does not excuse unfaithfulness. It reveals the faithful heart of God who, after judgment for spiritual adultery, which is giving to another the worship and love that belongs to Him alone, still offers mercy and restoration to those who turn back. He says to those who were not His people, you are My people, and they answer, you are my God. Restoration is real, but it comes through repentance and return to Him.

That is why Scripture distinguishes between sorrow and repentance. Godly sorrow works repentance leading to salvation, and repentance always brings a change. Worldly sorrow is being sorry that sin was found out or that consequences came, but it does not turn from the sin. True repentance turns away from what is wrong and turns to Christ to walk in a new way. If this brother has professed faith in Christ and has drifted through sexual sin into a binding relationship with one who does not know the Lord, what he needs most is not simply a change of living arrangements but a wholehearted return to Jesus.

So let us pray that God in His mercy will grant him godly sorrow that leads to a clear break with sin. Pray that he will flee fornication, that he will separate himself from any cohabitation or sexual relationship outside of the lifelong covenant of marriage between one man and one woman, and that he will not be yoked in marriage to an unbeliever. Pray that he will accept the will of God even when it means the ending of a relationship that cannot be pleasing to God, trusting that God's will is righteous, merciful and faithful. Pray that he will know the Lord more deeply, that his faith in Jesus Christ will be unwavering, and that he will find forgiveness and cleansing through Christ alone, for there is no other name by which we are saved.

May the Lord give you grace to continue interceding with love and truth, without hatred toward anyone, desiring not the shaming of people but the holiness and restoration of a brother, that God alone may be glorified as holy forever.

 

[hostadmin]

Thank you for giving us the privilege to pray on your behalf. We are glad that you asked us to stand in agreement with you in prayer before the throne of God.

We have continued to lift up this special brother hidden for privacy to the Lord. We have been praying that he will return to the Lord with a repentant heart after distancing himself through fornication, and that he will accept Gods will regarding his broken relationship and marriage. We have asked God to give him unwavering faith in Jesus Christ and clarity to understand your concern that as a born again Christian he should not be unequally yoked as taught in 2 Cor 6:14, but to walk in righteousness and faithfulness according to the Fathers holy plan for his life.

We have been praying based on the promise in Hosea 2:19-23 that God betroths His people to Himself in righteousness and justice and lovingkindness and mercy and faithfulness, and that they shall know the Lord. We continue to pray for his restoration, for mercy, and that God would draw him back into fellowship and guide him to make decisions that honor Christ. We also pray for peace and protection for all involved and for those who are encouraging him to follow God, that there would be no persecution but only grace and truth.

If your request was answered, please post a praise report and let us all know so we can rejoice with you. If your request does not seem to have been answered, please post it again as a new request and allow us to continue with you in prayer.

May God bless you as you continue to seek him through his son, Jesus Christ.

We pray together that the Lord will work in this brothers heart, bring conviction where needed, grant forgiveness and cleansing through 1 John 1:9, restore his walk, and lead him in the path of obedience and holiness. We ask for Gods perfect will to be done in this situation for His glory. We pray this in Jesus Name.