The very fact that there is another Commandment which reads: Do not let thyself lust after thy neighbor’s wife! shows how little this Sixth Commandment corresponds in meaning to what the earthly law decrees about it.
Thou shalt not commit adultery can also read Thou shalt not break the peace of a marriage! By peace one naturally understands also harmony. That at the same time stipulates what a marriage should really be like; for where there is nothing to break or to disturb, the Commandment, which is not governed by earthly interpretations and regulations but by the Divine Will, does not apply either.
Hence a marriage only exists where harmony and peace reign as a matter of course. Where one always seeks to live only for the other and make him happy. One-sidedness and the so often tempting, deadening boredom are then completely and for ever excluded from the outset, as well as the dangerous craving for distraction or the illusion of being misunderstood! Murder weapons for all happiness!
These particular evils simply cannot arise in a proper marriage where the one really lives for the other, because the idea of being misunderstood, and also the craving for distraction, are merely the consequences of a marked selfishness which seeks to live only for itself, but not for the other!
Where there is true love of soul, however, the mutual glad giving up of self is something quite natural, and in this way any disadvantage to one party is reciprocally also quite impossible. Provided that also the degree of culture of those uniting does not show too great a gap!
That is a condition required by the Law of the Attraction of Homogeneous Species in the great Universe, which must be complied with if happiness is to be complete.
But where that peace, that harmony are not to be found, the marriage does not deserve to be called marriage; for then it is not one either, but merely an earthly partnership which as such obtains no value before God, and therefore cannot bring that kind of blessing which is to be expected in a true marriage.
Hence with the Sixth Commandment real marriage according to the Will of God is a prerequisite! No other marriage is protected. But woe unto him who dares to disturb a true marriage in any way! For the triumph which he imagines he has from it here on earth awaits him ethereally in quite a different form! He would fain flee from it in terror, when he has to cross into the realm where the consequences of his deeds await him.
It is adultery in the most far-reaching sense even where the attempt is made to separate two souls who really love one another, as is often done by parents when some earthly circumstance or other is not in accordance with their wish!
And woe also to the woman, woe to a man, be they young or old, who out of envy or flirtatiousness consciously brings discord or even strife between such a couple!
Pure love between two human beings shall be hallowed before every one; it shall inspire him with reverence and respect, but not desire! For it stands under the protection of God’s Will!
If a feeling of such unclean desire seeks to arise in a human being, then he should turn away and look with clear eyes only among those people who have not yet attached themselves to another soul.
If he seeks earnestly and with patience, he will unfailingly also find a person who is suited to him in the way willed by God, with whom he will then also be happy without first burdening himself with some guilt, which can never bring and grant any happiness!
The great mistake of these people is often simply that they go out of their way to yield to a pressure of feeling which to begin with is always weak, retaining it forcibly within them, tending it with artificial fantasy until, gaining strength, it fills them, and tormenting them, drives them also to sin!
Thousands of human spirits would not have to be lost if only they would always pay heed to the beginning of it, which, if it is not created by intellectual calculation, merely arises from a flirtatiousness unworthy of a human being, which in turn has its origin in pernicious practices of earthly family and particularly social life! Just these are often nothing but marriage markets, no cleaner than the open slave-trade of the Orient! In them lies a breeding-place for the germs of adultery.
You parents, be on your guard lest you become guilty of adultery in regard to your children, by being too intellectually calculating! Countless parents are already so entangled! It takes much for them to free themselves again from it!
You children, be careful that you do not perhaps become peace-breakers between your parents, or else you too will be guilty of adultery! Ponder this well. Otherwise you make yourselves enemies of your God, and there is no such enemy who would not eventually have to fall to destruction in unspeakable torments, without God lifting a finger!
You must never destroy the peace and the harmony between two human beings. Hammer this into yourself, so that it may always stand as a warning before the eyes of your soul. –