Exodus 20:14: You shall not commit Adultery
Meaning of the Commandment
- Narrow meaning
- No sexual intercourse with another person’s spouse
- But the implications can cover many areas of human life
- WLC
- Question 138:
- Question 139:
- WLC gets a bit legalistic here and goes beyond scripture as well. We will look into those in more detail here in a minute.
- Point is a hedge of protection against lust was designed by the WLC
- Goes to the heart
- Purity of heart
- Avoiding occasions for temptation
- Notice: diligent labor
- Reflection of our covenant relationship with God
- So unfaithfulness to God is spiritual adultery
- Personal perspective on all sin
Specific Sins covered by the 7th commandment
- Marriage
- Gender is fundamental to life
- The sexual difference is one of the most fundamental
- Despite feminist and politically correct complaints to the contrary
- We naturally treat people of different sexes differently
- The sexual difference is one of the most fundamental
- The sexual urge is deep and powerful
- God created this desire – to motivate marriage and reproduction
- In our world sex is everywhere, not just in the marriage
- Advertisements
- Movies
- Sex as a means of dominion – obeying the dominion mandate
- Gen 1:28
- Marriage is a creation ordinance
- Gen 2:23-24
- Leave = begin a new household – normative
- Continues the primacy of the family in the commandments
- Cleave – hold fast (Ruth 1:14 -
- One flesh – existential
- Sexual reference
- Also used to refer to nurture
- Eph 5:28-31
- Creates a new situation
- God calls marriage a covenant
- Ezekiel 16:8
- Malachi 2:14
- A relationship governed by an oath
- Family –society – law – protection
- Image of the covenant between God and his people
- Gen 3 – first sin disrupts marriage relationship
- Adultery is treason against the family as idolatry is treason against God
- Jer 3: 6-10
- Ezek 16:23
- Rom 1:18-25
- Adultery reflects a rebellion against our fundamental relationship with our spouse and God
- The family is the root of all corporate relationships
- Promises of marriage and the covenant
- Renewal of the marriage of Adam and Eve
- Gen 3:15
- Isa 62:5
- Hos 2:14-30
- Eph 5: 25-33
- I Cor 6:15-20
- 2 Cor 11:2
- Renewal of the marriage of Adam and Eve
- The blessing of marriage
- Jesus first miracle was water into wine at a wedding feast – John 2:1-11
- The kingdom is compared to a wedding feast
- Matthew 22:1-14
- Marriage supper of the lamb
- Rev 19:6-9
- Adultery is not only treason but then a rejection of redemptive grace
- This makes other rules of marriage make more sense
- Death and Unbelievers
- ! Cor 7:39
- 2 Corinthians 6:14
- Eldership
- I Tim 3:2
- Care for widows
- I Tim 5:9
- Death and Unbelievers
- This makes other rules of marriage make more sense
- Other truths about marriage
- No command for church leaders to be unmarried – contrary to RCC
- Not sinful to be single and may be a calling for some –
- Matt 19:12, I tim 5:3-10
- Sex is good and required within marriage – I Cor 7:5
- Some biblical marriage were arranges
- Some were based on love
- Jacob and Rachel – Gen 29:1-30
- David and Michel – I Sam 18:2-29
- Polygamy
- Polygamists were denied church office in the NT –
- I tim 3:2
- They were not denied church membership
- In the OT polygamy is prevalent
- Scripture does not treat polygamy as adultery but does not represent it as the ideal either
- Matt 19:1-12
- Prostitution
- Surprisingly seems to be tolerated to some degree in the OT
- No command against it in the OT
- But women who are to marry are punished for prostituting themselves
- Dt 22:20-21
- Judah – Genesis 38
- One of those “dark” ethical questions…
- Judah disobeyed God’s command for his daughter-in-law
- He then goes to seek a prostitute
- But women who are to marry are punished for prostituting themselves
- No command against it in the OT
- Israel is described as a prostitute for seeking other Gods
- Ex 34:15-16
- Judges 2:17, 8:27-33
- Jer 2:20
- Hos 2:1-13
- Instruction in wisdom is to turn away from prostitutes
- Prov 7:10-20
- Separation from the cultural temple prostitution
- Dt 23:17-18.
- Rahab was declared a hero of the faith but was a prostitute
- Joshua 2
- Hebrews 11
- James 2:25
- Homosexuality
- Condemned
- Sodom
- The law
- Lev 18:22
- Lev 20:13
- An example of idolatry
- Romans 1:24-27
- Orientation is no sin
- Heb 4:15
- Paul lists repentant homosexuals among the church
- I Cor 6:11
- Conviction in the OT
- Required two or three eyewitnesses
- What is kept private is not criminal yet may be sinful
- Incest
- Lev 18:1-18
- I Cor 5:1
- Violates both marital and family governance
- Pedophilia
- No age of consent in scripture
- Young marriage was common in scripture
- Does not fit with modern society
- Sexual fulfillment is in marriage
- Most pedophilia is homosexual
- It is again threat to families and marriage
- Fornication
- Sexual immorality
- I Cor 6:18
- Jude 7.
- Seduction
- Ex 22:16-17
- Must marry and can never divorce
- Dt 22:29
- Sex before marriage considered prostitution and sex outside marriage as sin
- Dt 22:13-21
- To be avoided
- I Cor 6:18-20
- No death penalty like for adultery
- Ex 22: 16-17 again
- Lust
- A condition of adultery of the heart
- Matt 5:27-28
- What is lust?
- Not sexual desire as such – that is good
- Not a general recognition of attractiveness – or desire
- Gen 29:17
- I Sam 16:12, 25:3
- Not lustful to vie or imagine sex
- Scripture describes many instances of sexual relations
- Lust is not temptation
- Heb 4:15
- Lust is: the desire to engage in sexual acts that are contrary to God’s law
- Lust is wrong even if it never leads to the decision to act on it
- Difficult to see how pornography, masturbation etc. without a spouse can be done without lust
Divorce and Remarriage
- Marriage is a lifetime commitment
- Matthew 19:6
- Reflects the eternal covenant between God and man
- Scripture does allow for divorce
- Dt 24:1-4
- Mark 10:5
- But it represents a failure to achieve God’s ideal
- Divorce is not always sin
- Not obligated to stay with a sinning spouse, but may choose to do so
- Hosea 3:1-5
- God divorced Israel
- Hos 1:9
- WCf cites – adultery and willful desertion as biblical ground for divorce
- WCF 24:6
- Biblical grounds
- DT 24:1-4 (again)
- Remarriage prohibited in NT
- Matt 5: 31-32
- Mark 10:2-12
- Adultery
- Exception
- Matt 5:32
- Matt 19:9
- Sexual immorality
- Refers to many sexual sins
- All are adultery when committed by a married person
- But not commanded, necessary or desirable
- Refers to many sexual sins
- Remarriage after divorce for sexual immorality
- Matt 19:9 – may do so (again)
- I Cor 7:1-15
- Willful desertion – action by unbelieving spouse renouncing their marital obligations
- Excommunication applies to this as well – covenant community is being discussed not eternal salvation
- So the abusive or sinful spouse who refuses to repent should properly through church discipline be excommunicated – that is declared a non-believer to the covenant community
- Excommunication applies to this as well – covenant community is being discussed not eternal salvation
The 7th Commandment and Reproduction
- Birth Control
- Purpose do marriage to bring forth children : Gen 1:28
- Much scripture encourages reproduction
- The family is central to God’s purpose
- The dominion mandate is given to humanity as a whole, not to specific individuals
- Just as long hair can be a blessing it is not a sin to cut it
- Children maybe a blessing but their is not command to have all that we physically can
- This is part of the covenant between husband and wife, determining the best way for them to obey the cultural mandate
- Permissible but bears a high burden of proof as to why this couple sues it
- Selfishness or for the good of all?
