Ten Commandments: Respect for Each Other

Adultery

Monday, October 16, 2017

(5) Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you. 
(6) You shall not murder. 
(7) You shall not commit adultery. 
(8) You shall not steal. 
(9) You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
(10) You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
‭‭Exodus‬ ‭20:12-17‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Do you know how many times the word “adultery” or some form of it is found in the Bible? 68. Considering there are 66 books in the Bible, that’s a pretty significant number. I think that indicates that even from the beginning people have struggled with sexual sin. What do you think?

Regarding a sexual relationship outside of marriage, consider what Proverbs has to say. 

But a man who commits adultery has no sense; whoever does so destroys himself. 
‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭6:32‬ ‭NIV‬‬

It is God’s design that one man and one woman should marry, having saved themselves sexually for the other. They are to remain married and stay faithful to one another until the cows come home. Period. To do it any differently than that is to break God’s commandment. Who cares what the world finds socially acceptable. We have to answer to God. 

So what is adultery anyway? Based on several dictionaries I consulted, I found that it is “sex outside of marriage.” I take that to include two single people, two married people, or one married and one single person. 

Much like we found with murder, Jesus has something very interesting to say about adultery. 

You have heard that it was said, “You shall 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

Consider the penalty for adultery as laid out in the Old Testament. 

If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death.
‭‭Leviticus‬ ‭20:10‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Yikes! I’d better keep my mind from wandering! 

So where should we stand today regarding infidelity or adultery? We should consider it to be wrong, we should avoid it at all costs and we should teach this to our children and our children’s children. I don’t think God changes His mind about things like this. Adultery was always a sin and always will be. 

LORD, help us not to fall into the trap set by Satan in our society — that sexual satisfaction is a person’s right and is perfectly acceptable. Help us, instead, to keep ourselves sexually pure for our partners and for Your glory.