Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
-Matthew 22:37-39, NLT
In the midst of the real injustices and insults surrounding being cheated upon, faithful spouses often loose sight of the eternal truth that cheaters do not win.
How we love God and each other has eternal consequences. Like the Shinedown song communicates, the most important verdict is the one based on how we have loved.
Cheaters have failed fantastically on that level.
They have not loved God well.
Instead, they have rejected His clear prohibition against adultery (see Exodus 20:14), and essentially made themselves gods in defiance of Him. The cheater’s actions say that they know better than God. That is not love.
And they have certainly NOT loved their spouses (and kids) well.
You cannot be involved in raping your spouse’s soul–which is what adultery is–and honestly consider that a job well done as far as loving them is concerned. The same thing goes for the children. Traumatizing the parent of your children is the opposite of loving those children well.
My point in saying all this is to remind faithful spouses that cheaters do not win. They are the ones who failed. Not you.
When our time is up, it really does boil down to how well we loved one another (and God).
