Does Fidelity in Marriage Matter?

[Steve Myers] It's a big topic in the news. Does fidelity in marriage matter?

[Darris McNeely] Already this year in the presidential campaign, Steve, we've had one candidate drop out because of allegations of sexual impropriety in his personal life. We have another candidate who has admitted to problems as well in his own life. It is an issue in the campaign, will always be an issue among leaders and politicians.

[Steve Myers] But it's not just a political thing.

[Darris McNeely] No, it speaks to really a moral issue that affects all of society and the very basis and bedrock of society. Marriage and the family and the godly definition from the Bible of a marriage between a husband and wife and faithfulness to that relationship, to that committed relationship.

[Steve Myers] Because it's more than just an action in that way; it reveals who you are. It reveals your character doesn't it?

[Darris McNeely] That's why God made it, embedded it into the commandment "Thou shalt not commit adultery." It's a cardinal law of God but it's also really a law of relationship between human beings and especially a man and a wife in marriage, to be faithful, to be monogamous, to be one who can be trusted in that type of relationship. And at every level of society, even the highest of presidential leadership to the leadership of a father and a wife in family, throughout the whole part, aspects of society, this is a key feature.

[Steve Myers] And it reveals who we really are. You think about God's law and how it was set out for us. He made His laws in order to help us to live a happy, fulfilling life. And so He mapped out this way of living. And so when we violate God's law, we violate that law about do not commit adultery, it also shows who we are because oftentimes we'll begin to lie about that, another one of the commandments. We're stealing someone else's mate, which is also a breaking of the commandment. But it brings sorrow, it brings sadness, it brings difficulty in life. God wants the best for us and so it does matter. It matters at the highest level.

[Darris McNeely] Through the prophet Malachi, God made some very serious charges about society and the fabric of society. He addressed marriage in chapter 2:14, He says, "The Lord has been witness between you and the wife of your youth with whom you have dealt treacherously. Yet, she is your companion and your wife by covenant" (Malachi 2:14) Two people make an agreement in marriage and being faithful to that in God's eyes is an extremely vital aspect of the character that an individual forms. So, it does matter.

[Steve Myers] It does matter. And when you put that into the realm of leadership, that brings it to even a higher standard, doesn't it?

[Darris McNeely] Well, especially in political leadership, the governmental leadership, because those people are responsible for the life and death of people, and to be able to have that confidence and trust that they are going to be faithful all the way through and inner-integrity in every aspect of their performance on that job, I think it does matter. And how they treat a wife, how they treat their husbands, in that situation is very important.

[Steve Myers] So we've got to make sure that we're people of character, that we're people of God. And we're making sure that that standard is the standard we live by.

[Darris McNeely] That's BT Daily. Join us next time.