The 7th Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery
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Exodus 20:14
Exodus 20:14
In 1631, the royal printers of London reprinted copies of the King James Version of the Bible. Little did they know the typesetters had made an unintentional but massive omission. Soon after its publication, readers discovered the mistake. The error was made in Exodus 20:14. The omitted word was “not.” The Seventh Commandment read: “You shall commit adultery.” The printers were heavily fined and stripped of their licenses. Copies were destroyed. The version was dubbed “The Wicked Bible.” Fourteen copies remain in museums around the world. With the moral perversion, situational ethics, and spiritual indifference of our culture, you would think many people are reading from the Wicked Bible. But the word of God still says: “You shall not commit adultery.”
First we must start by saying that sex is not sinful, God has made it for our good. The reason adultery is wrong is because it is a perversion of something good and wholesome.
Sex is powerful. “Sex is like superglue” - Ryken. One flesh union. When practiced outside of marriage it glues people together who should never be together and causes great damage.
Wherever there is great power - there must also be great responsibility.
1. Physical Adultery
1. Physical Adultery
Biblical marriage - one flesh union.
322. What is marriage? Marriage is the exclusive, lifelong, covenantal union of love between one man and one woman, and a reflection of the faithful love that unites God and his people. Marriage is therefore holy and should be held in honour among all.
318. What is adultery? Adultery is any sexual intimacy between persons not married to each other, at least one of whom is married to another.
David and Bathsheba
1 In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.
2 It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. 3 And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” 4 So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house. 5 And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.”
David should have been with his army in battle, but he was lounging around at home. He arose late in the afternoon.
The devil finds work for idle hands
Up until this point David’s reign had been one of success upon success - but death, pain and family strife entered hereafter and never departed.
10 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ 11 Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house. And I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. 12 For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.’ ”
If you sow sexual immorality be certain, you will reap a harvest.
324. Why does God forbid adultery? Adultery is a sin against one's spouse or spouse-to-be; against the sexual partners with whom it is committed; against their children, family, and friends; against human society by undermining the institution of marriage; and against God, in whose Name marriage vows are made.
Be careful of over indulging yourself in relaxation and entertainment. That’s when temptation will hit hardest.
2. Emotional Adultery
2. Emotional Adultery
David’s affair is the exception to the general rule - Adultery very rarely starts out physical - it usually starts out as an emotional attachment with someone other than your spouse, a friendship with a colleague or acquaintance. That relationship begins to meet emotional needs that you should be bringing to your spouse.
323. Why did God ordain marriage? God ordained marriage for the procreation of children to be brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; for a remedy against sin and to avoid sexual immorality; for mutual friendship, help, and comfort, both in prosperity and in adversity; and for the benefit of family, church, and society.
God created marriage as the proper setting for procreation, but also as the proper place for both our sexual and emotional needs to be met.
To outsource our emotional needs to a member of the opposite sex other than our spouse is to commit emotional adultery. Very often these kinds of relationships become physical also.
Saying ‘Oh well, my husband/wife wasn’t meeting my needs so I had to get them me somewhere.’ is not an excuse. We need to be able to communicate properly with one another we’re not children. If there’s a problem in the relationship - address it, don’t let it fester.
3. Inward Adultery
3. Inward Adultery
Arthur W. Pink wrote: “Let no man flatter himself with the idea that he cannot be charged with unchastity because he has abstained from the actual deed while his heart is a cesspool of defiling imaginations and desires.”
When Jesus dealt with the subject of adultery he made it clear that to entertain lustful thoughts about someone other than your spouse is to commit adultery in your heart.
28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Whether it’s someone in real life, or a virtual image or video on a device. To lust after another other than your spouse is to commit the sin of adultery of the heart.
In this passage - Jesus isn’t teaching that the physical act of adultery is on a par with lusting after someone; he is proving that just because you may have refrained from physical infidelity - it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re guiltless on the 7th commandment.
19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.
4. Walking in Chastity
4. Walking in Chastity
The seventh commandment doesn’t just command us not to engage in sexual immorality - it calls us to a life of sexual chastity.
Chastity doesn’t mean abstinence, ie refraining completely from sex. Chastity is about sexual purity - refraining from innaproprite or immoral sexual activity.
320. What does it mean for you to be chaste?
Whether I am married or single, it means I will love and honor others as image bearers of God, not as objects of lust and sexual gratification, and I will refrain from all sexual acts outside of marriage.
How can we walk in chastity?
Guard our eyes - Job 31:1 “1 “I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin?”
Guard our hearts - Proverbs 4:23 “23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”
Guard our appearance - 1 Timothy 2:9–10 “9 likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, 10 but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works.”
If you are unmarried - the Apostle Paul says that this is a wonderful opportunity to be taken up with the things of the Lord and to make Him your priority. For some - a single life is the calling that God gives them - for others marriage is what God calls them to.
But as you wait - be praying for your future spouse and keep yourself for them. If you feel led to seek out a partner then be selective. Don’t pick the first guy or girl that comes along - physical attraction is important but spiritual compatibility is even more so. Pick someone who will lead you closer to God.
If you’re married - you’re not called to abstinence, you’re called to sexual purity. Chastity in a Christian marriage means not witholding yourself from your spouse.
3 The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. 4 For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. 5 Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
Of course from time to time things like illness, travel, young children etc can get in the way of this, but don’t let it become the norm. Physical intimacy is an important part of a healthy Christian marriage.
our chastity should be as dear to us as our lives, and we should be as much afraid of that which defiles the body as of that which destroys it.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, “Even adultery is not the unforgivable sin. It is a terrible sin, but God forbid that there should be anyone who feels that he or she has sinned himself or herself outside the love of God or outside His kingdom because of adultery. No; if you truly repent and realize the enormity of your sin and cast yourself upon the boundless love and mercy and grace of God, you can be forgiven and I assure you of pardon.”
