I was friends with a married man. It was all very innocent until one day. I met his wife and children, and they were all so lovely. He dropped me off at home, and it just happened. I can’t believe that I allowed myself to accept a married man in my bed. I am so ashamed. I believe I am forgiven as we both stopped, said “this shouldn’t be happening,” and started repenting. We are both God-fearing people who allowed a very stupid mistake to happen. I am terrified his wife will find out, not just for my own sake but for his as well. I could see how horrified he was by what we had done. I believe God has forgiven us. I know I will never<\/em>\u00a0commit adultery again, but how do I let go of the guilt?<\/p>\n\t Why would you want to not feel guilty about your adultery? It is the guilt that reminds you that you did wrong and serves as an incentive to not repeat the sin. It is when people sin without a sense of remorse or shame that problems arise.<\/p>\n This adultery didn’t “just happen.” Few sins are accidental. Temptation can blindside a person, but more often in sexual sins, at least one person had been toying with the idea for a while. “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man<\/em>” (Mark 7:21-23). To even say that it was just the passion of the moment skips over the simple fact that a married man should not be in a passionate situation with a woman who is not his wife. Neither of you placed barriers on your behavior or the situations you allowed yourselves to get into.<\/p>\n I’m glad you said you were friends. Any relationship with this man has to come to a complete halt. As nice as his family is, you can no longer be involved. There is too great a danger in the events continuing. “Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil<\/em>” (I Thessalonians 5:21-22).<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: I was friends with a married man. It was all very innocent until one day. I met his wife and children, and they were all so lovely. He dropped me off at home, and it just happened. I can’t believe that I allowed myself to accept a married man in my bed. I am…<\/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,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[66,703],"class_list":["post-37201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-adultery","tag-guilt"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":27369,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/am-i-doing-right-in-reconciling-with-my-former-husband\/","url_meta":{"origin":37201,"position":0},"title":"Am I doing right in reconciling with my former husband?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 28, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, Thank you in advance for reading and answering this question. I have a problem. I got married about 15 years ago to a man I'd been in love with since I was 17 years old. During the marriage, we had several problems, some physical and emotional abuse, and\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":52667,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/has-god-forgiven-my-friend-who-is-living-with-a-married-man\/","url_meta":{"origin":37201,"position":1},"title":"Has God forgiven my friend who is living with a married man?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 15, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I have a close relative who is in an illegal relationship. He was married, but he knew that the marriage was already broken. He was trying to fix the situation when he realized there was no more love in his heart for his wife. He then reunited with\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":44009,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/you-will-be-accountable-for-what-you-said\/","url_meta":{"origin":37201,"position":2},"title":"You will be accountable for what you said!","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 18, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear Sir, I am married to a victim of the Church of Christ. She has escaped, yet her dad remains a preacher. Sometimes I surf around your site and others to remind myself just how real the lies are but also pray for the victims who believe this garbage.\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":24880,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/would-it-be-right-to-marry-a-man-who-had-committed-adultery-but-was-forgiven\/","url_meta":{"origin":37201,"position":3},"title":"Would it be right to marry a man who had committed adultery but was forgiven?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 18, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good afternoon! I am reaching out because I have been combing through the collection of divorce articles on your website and believe you have an extensive biblical understanding of the subject. I hope that you can offer some clarity on a certain situation that I am receiving conflicting counsel\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":42090,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-didnt-realize-the-consequences-of-my-adultery\/","url_meta":{"origin":37201,"position":4},"title":"I didn’t realize the consequences of my adultery","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 4, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I want to first say that I'm a Christian according to the Bible, and belong to the local church. My husband and I both are Christians according to the Bible. In the past I've committed adultery and, even though I have been forgiven, sin had to be atoned for.\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":33078,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-i-remarry-after-being-divorced-by-my-wife-because-of-my-infidelities\/","url_meta":{"origin":37201,"position":5},"title":"Can I remarry after being divorced by my wife because of my infidelities?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 3, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was married to my wife for over ten years before I finally confessed my affairs. She was devastated and divorced me. We have children whom we share equal custody of. After being divorced for a number of years, she remarried. I am happy that God blessed her with\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\/37201","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=37201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37201\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Answer:<\/h2>\n