A lady with a Baptist background asked me if I thought one sin would keep her from Heaven. She said “suppose a person was living in an adulterous marriage, but done everything else right such as attending church, studying the Bible, etc. Would this person go to Heaven?” Could you direct me to a similar question on your website or respond?<\/p>\n
Thanks.<\/p>\n\t
“If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well; but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law<\/em>” (James 2:8-11).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The problem lies in the person’s attitude toward God’s law. A person who is willing to obey God in areas he agrees, doesn’t care or finds it convenient to obey God, yet clings to a sin that he personally wants to commit demonstrates that his personal will comes before all others.<\/p>\n
Christians do sin at times (I John 1:8-2:1), but they find all sin repulsive and work hard to overcome those sins. They understand Paul’s words: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?<\/em>” (Romans 6:1-2). This is not to say that if a Christian slips just before he dies that he has lost all possibility of reaching heaven. After all, “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous<\/em>” (I John 2:1). Such would be a matter for God to judge. But no Christian should think that he can ignore his sins, continue to wallow in them, and then expect God to accept him anyway despite his sins. Christianity is about battling sin, not compromising with the enemy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: A lady with a Baptist background asked me if I thought one sin would keep her from Heaven. She said “suppose a person was living in an adulterous marriage, but done everything else right such as attending church, studying the Bible, etc. Would this person go to Heaven?” Could you direct me to a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[66,179],"class_list":["post-18707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-adultery","tag-sin"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":66073,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/ive-been-breaking-the-sabbath\/","url_meta":{"origin":18707,"position":0},"title":"I’ve been breaking the Sabbath","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 21, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I'm kind of in a tough situation and I need some help with this. I have a bad sin. It's the breaking of the Sabbath. \"Whoever breaks one commandment is guilty of breaking them all. For the same one who said, \"Do not commit adultery,\" also said, \"Do not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12782,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/doesnt-matthew-527-28-only-apply-to-married-people\/","url_meta":{"origin":18707,"position":1},"title":"Doesn’t Matthew 5:27-28 only apply to married people?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: With the Scripture:\u00a0\"You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart\" (Matthew 5:27-28). Only married people can commit adultery, so as I see it, this Scripture is not meant\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41120,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-wife-return-to-her-first-husband-after-marrying-another-man\/","url_meta":{"origin":18707,"position":2},"title":"Can a wife return to her first husband after marrying another man?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 30, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear Brother Hamilton, Based on my research, there appear to be almost as many interpretations among biblical scholars of what \"defiled\" means in Deut. 24:4 as there are interpretations of the exception clause in Matt. 19:9. However, I don't see why it should be an issue because it was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30916,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-jesus-allow-divorce-when-the-law-had-a-death-penalty-for-adultery\/","url_meta":{"origin":18707,"position":3},"title":"Why did Jesus allow divorce when the Law had a death penalty for adultery?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 12, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I'm trying to figure out how to reconcile a couple of Jesus' statements in the Sermon on the Mount. First Jesus said, \"Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7517,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/would-an-atheist-be-saved-if-he-did-good-deeds-during-his-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":18707,"position":4},"title":"Would an atheist be saved if he did good deeds during his life?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 2, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: If an atheist has always done good deeds during his life (abided by God\u00b4s rules preached by all religions), where would God (if there is any) allocate him after his death -- heaven or hell? I personally believe that God, being so gracious as we have been told, will\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28075,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-matthew-528-only-apply-to-lusting-after-a-married-woman\/","url_meta":{"origin":18707,"position":5},"title":"Does Matthew 5:28 only apply to lusting after a married woman?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 8, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am a Christian and worship in a congregation of the Church of Christ. \u00a0I would like to ask you something, that has been vexing me for some time, and I know the general and most common answers but I would truly applicate your reply. \"But I say to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18707\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}