Affairs of the Heart

Back in December last year, world number one golfer Tiger Woods made the news for repeatedly cheating on his wife.

Over the past few weeks in the UK, the sexual shenanigans of Chelsea and England defenders John Terry and Ashley Cole have been splashed across British tabloids.

Now Singaporean filmmaker Jack Neo's 2-year affair with a 22-year old freelance model has been picked up by the local media.

But before we start throwing stones at them, let us examine ourselves first. It's instructive to observe how Jesus restored a woman caught in adultery.

A Woman Caught in Adultery

But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"

"No one, sir," she said.

"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."

- John 8:1-11 (NIV)

The heart of the affair...

"Who can say, "I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin"?" - Proverbs 20:9 (NIV)

"The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" - Jeremiah 17:9 (NIV)

"You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." - Matthew 5:27-28 (NIV)

...is the affair of the heart

"I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl." - Job 31:1 (NIV)

"Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false." - Psalm 24:3-4 (NIV)

"How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." - Psalm 119:9-11 (NIV)

"Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." - Proverbs 4:23 (NIV)

Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians

"So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin." - Romans 7:21-25 (NIV)

"The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." - 1 Corinthians 15:56-57 (NIV)

"Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!" - 2 Corinthians 9:15 (NIV)

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will." - Romans 12:1-2 (NIV)

"No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry." - 1 Corinthians 10:13-14 (NIV)

"To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." - 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (NIV)