And all of you, dress yourselves in humility as you relate to one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
-I Peter 5:5b , NLT
God is not neutral to the proud, haughty.
Honestly, the issue of pride is the main barrier to healing and resurrection of marriages. Cheaters lack humility. They would rather die than admit their need for forgiveness and face the damage of their sins.
Sure, some will admit to some of what they did. But most will avoid the topic unless caught dead to rights.
They act entitled. It is a pride issue.
And this verse tells us that God opposes them. They will not experience His grace. That is a STRONG warning!
Now, I don’t think this is so much a personal thing. I think it is an expression of spiritual laws. Much like natural law, spiritual laws follow some basic principles.
We cannot experience God’s forgiveness and grace unless we are positioned to accept these gifts. That positioning is called humility.
A humble person recognizes a gift. They are able to receive it, because they can now see it from a place of humility.
On the other hand, a proud person does not recognize such gifts. They do not have need for grace in their eyes. So, they experience God’s opposition as they refuse to position their heart to receive His free gifts.
Cheaters do not change their character over night. They got tangled in their sins, because they decided to be their own god and worship at the altar of self-indulgence. Such idolatry MUST be forsaken and humility exhibited for them to experience grace from God (or other humans, in my opinion).
“They would rather die than admit their need for forgiveness and face the damage of their sins.”
And it seems so many keep trying to fix the unfixable by even more sin.
It was years later when my ex blew up his relationship with our son that I saw what his (ex’s) life had become. He went from cheating on his whore/wife and that didn’t fix his life, so on to lying and scamming our son to gambling.
It was just recently that I read the connection that the experts are making between cheating and gambling. When I think of it, it makes sense both are a form of cheating, basically trying to get to the perceived reward without the honesty work invovled.