Your Cheatin' Heart (Part 2)

Before writing this segment of my blog, I did some research on the Internet using the words, "Why men cheat." Part of the results were some articles that said men cheat because they were intended to be polygamous and that we should get over the idea of monogamy.

In fact, I had a co-worker ask one day, "Where did we get the idea from the Bible that men were supposed to be monogamous?"

We were discussing the verse in I Timothy 3:2 where Paul instructs Timothy that Elders in the church must be, "...the husband of one wife," meaning that they must not be polygamous (a reflection of the time and area of the world they lived in).

Well, I have to admit I was a little stumped on that one for a bit, due to the fact that there were some characters well thought of by God in the Old Testament (Solomon, for example) who were polygamous. Finally, I reached a conclusion that I believe is Biblical - It's Adam and Eve... not Adam, Eve, Susie, Jane, Bernice and Hortense.

The original model for man apparently, was one husband and one wife. Jesus said in Matthew 19:5, "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh" (NIV). There is no room in that statement for a multiplicity of wives. One plus one equals two.

The first polygamous marriage recorded in scripture is found in Genesis 4:19 - "Lamech married two women, one named Adah and the other Zillah" (NIV).

And, with all this... I don't really want to get into an entire treatise in support of monogamy. What I do want to do is to challenge the lie that 'men were intended to be polygamous, therefore, it's okay to cheat.' It's an absurd supposition.

All this does is give an excuse to men who are trying to find a reason to be unfaithful. However, this is the type of ludicrous thinking that invades men's hearts and minds these days.

This is a second element that figures into why men cheat. In the same way that Eve made all kinds of rationalizations to eat the forbidden fruit (good for food, pleasing to the eye, desirable for gaining wisdom - Gen. 3:6), so men make rationalizations that cheating is okay - even preposterous rationalizations such as the one mentioned above.

This is not the only thought that can lead a man to destruction. Others are...

"It's only this one time." "You've been under a lot of stress." "How can any man stand up under a temptation like this?" "I didn't expect this to happen. I was unprepared."

And so on, and so on.

We will discuss remedies in future posts.

For now, what types of safeguards do you have in your life to protect you against temptation? Do you allow yourself to be in tempting situations? Do you have any rationalizations that ever put you in a place of danger?

Please feel free to leave a response.