No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God.
-I John 3:6, NIV
Cheating as a sin-habit
When talking about adultery, I suspect most people only think of the illicit sex act. Rarely, I suspect, do pastors or other Christian leaders consider the habituation of lying that inevitably preceded and–likely–followed the illicit sex act(s).
And that is a major oversight!
In the push to “reconcile” the marriage, Christians miss that the problem was more than just one sexual act.
We are talking about a whole lifestyle of deception. The cheater not only has to learn to cease from committing adultery, he or she must unlearn the habit of lying to their spouse.
And I suspect solving the former sin problem is much easier than solving the later.
When lying becomes a habit, such leads the way into distorted thinking. I suspect many cheaters have lost their way so bad that even they no longer are able to distinguish truth from their own fiction. They’ve been lying so long that they believe their own propaganda.
My point is that the habitual lying is a HUGE problem!
From a spiritual standpoint, sin as habit is a major red flag! It is suggestive of someone who does not really know Christ as I John 3:6 tells us.
Such peril to cheaters’ souls ought to be reason enough for pastors to put the pastoral counseling focus on correcting the sinful habit of lying. However, it usually is not.
That is what happens when divorce is treated as more problematic than even habitual sin.
And the habitual sin of lying is yet another reason faithful spouses do not stick around in a marriage ravaged by a cheater. We know firsthand how damaging living with a habitual, abusive liar and cheat is!
