Whatever Happened to the Ten Commandments?

The Seventh Commandment

You shall not commit adultery
(Exod. 20:14).

This commandment contains God's plan for preserving marriage. An excellent parallel passage for our meditation on the Seventh Commandment is this:

You cover the altar of the LORD with tears,
With weeping and crying;
So He does not regard the offering anymore,
Nor receive it with goodwill from your hands.
Yet you say, 'For what reason?'
Because the LORD has been witness
Between you and the wife of your youth,
With whom you have dealt treacherously;
Yet she is your companion
And your wife by covenant.
But did He not make them one,
Having a remnant of the Spirit?
And why one? He seeks godly offspring.
Therefore take heed to your spirit,
And let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth.
Therefore take heed to your spirit,
That you do not deal treacherously' (Mal. 2:16).

We must ever keep in mind that the commandments are gifts of God's love to us; they are not meant to inhibit our good or our joy, but to direct us to life abundant. In this commandment God is preserving marriage. The Seventh Commandment is a fence around marriage. God is committed to marriage.

Duties Required In The Seventh Commandment

The duty to be chaste in body, mind, and affections:

That each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor (1 Thess. 4:4).

I have made a covenant with my eyes; Why then should I look upon a young woman? (Job 31:1)

The duty to be chaste in words and behaviour:

Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one (CoI. 4:6).

When they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear (1 Pet. 3:2).

The duty to preserve chastity in ourselves and others:

Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband And this I say for your own profit, not that I may put a leash on you, but for what is proper, and that you may serve the Lord without distraction. But if any man thinks he is behaving improperly toward his virgin, if she is past the flower of youth, and thus it must be, let him do what he wishes. He does not sin; let them marry (1 Cor. 7:2, 35-36).

The duty to keep chaste company:

To deliver you from the immoral woman, From the seductress who flatters with her words, Who forsakes the companion of her youth, And forgets the covenant of her God. For her house leads down to death, And her paths to the dead; None who go to her return, Nor do they regain the paths of life? So you may walk in the way of goodness, And keep to the paths of righteousness (Prov. 2:16?20).

The duty to be modest in apparel:

In like manner also, that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing (1 Tim. 2:9).

The duty of marriage by those that do not have the gift of continence:

But if they cannot exercise self-control, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion (1 Cor. 7:9).

The duty of conjugal love:

And rejoice with the wife of your youth. As a loving deer and a graceful doe, Let her breasts satisfy you at all times; And always be enraptured with her love. Fot why should you, my son, be enraptured by an immoral woman, And be embraced in the arms of a seductress? (Prov. 5:18-20).

The duty to resist temptation:

Remove your way far from her [the immoral woman], And do not go near the door of her house (Prov. 5:8).

The sin of adultery and fornication:

Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge (Heb. 13:4).

Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness (Gal. 5:19).

The sin of rape and incest:

However, he would not heed her voice; and being stronger than she, he forced her and lay with her (2 Sam. 13:14).

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles'that a man has his father-s wife! (1 Cor. 5:1).

The sin of sodomy and all unnatural lusts:

Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due (Rom. 1:24, 26-27).

If a man mates with an animal, he shall surely be put to death, and you shall kill the animal. If a woman approaches any animal and mates with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal. They shall surely be out to death. Their blood is upon them (Lev. 20:15?16).

The sin of unclean imaginations, thoughts, purposes, and affections:

But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Ma tt. 5:28).

For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies (Matt. 15:19).

Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetous- ness, which is idolatry (Co 1. 3:5).

The sin of corrupt or filthy communications:

But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks (Eph. 5:3?4).

That they may keep you from the immoral woman, From the seductress who flatters with her words With her enticing speech she caused him to yield, With her flattering lips she seduced him. Immediately he went after her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, Or as a fool to the correction of the stocks (Prov. 7:5, 21-22).

The sin of wanton looks: Moreover the LORD says: "Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, And walk with outstretched necks And wanton eyes, Walking and mincing as they go, Making a jingling with their feet . . ." (Isa. 3:16).

Having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covet- ous practices, and are accursed children (2 Pet. 2:14).

The sin of prohibiting lawful marriages:

Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth (1 Tim. 4:3).

The sin of disregarding unlawful marriages:

For John had said to Herod, "It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife" (Mark 6:18).

Judah has dealt treacherously,
And an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem,
For Judah has profaned The LORD'S holy institution which He loves:
He has married the daughter of a foreign god.
May the LORD cut off from the tents of Jacob
The man who does this, being awake and aware,
Yet who brings an offering to the LORD of hosts! (Mal. 2:11-12).

The sin of allowing, tolerating and keeping houses of prostitution or resorting to them:

And he banished the perverted persons from the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made (1 Kings 15:12).

Then he tore down the ritual booths of the perverted persons that were in the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the wooden image (2 Kings 23:7).

There shall be no ritual harlot of the daughters of Israel, or a perverted one of the sons of Israel. You shall not bring the wages of a harlot or the price of a dog to the house of the LORD your God for any vowed offering, for both of these are an abomination to the LORD your God (Deut. 23:17,18)

Do not prostitute your daughter, to cause her to be a harlot, lest the land fall into harlotry, and the land become full of wickedness (Lev. 19:29).

How shall I gardon you for this?
Your children have forsaken Me
And sworn by those that are not gods.
When I had fed them to the full,
Then they committed adultery
And assembled themselves by troops in the harlot's houses (Jer. 5:7).

Now therefore, listen to me, my children;
Pay attention to the words of my mouth:
Do not let your heart turn aside to her [the harlot's] ways,
Do not stray into her paths;
For she has cast down many wounded,
And all who were slain by her were strong men.
Her house is the way to hell,
Descending to the chambers of death (Prov. 7:24-27).

The sin of having more than one spouse at the same time:

For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh (Matt. 19:5).

The sin of unjust divorce:

'For the LORD God of Israel says
That He hates divorce,
For it covers one's garment with violence,'
Says the LORD of hosts.
'Therefore take heed to your spirit,
That you do not deal treacherously' (Mal. 2:16)

But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery (Matt. 5:32).

The sin of unchaste company:

So it was, as she spoke to Joseph day by day, that he did not heed her, to lie with her or to be with her (Gen. 39:10).

Remove your way far from her [the immoral woman], And do not go near the door of her house (Prov. 5:8).

The sin of using words, pictures or actions which incite to uncleanness:

Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks (Eph. 5:4).

But she increased her harlotry;
She looked at men portrayed on the wall,
Images of Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion,
Girded with belts around their waists,
Flowing turbans on their heads,
All of them looking like captains,
In the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea,
The land of their nativity
As soon as her eyes saw them,
She lusted for them And sent messengers to them in Chaldea (Ezek. 23:14-16).

And when Herodias? daughter herself came in and danced, and pleased Herod and those who sat with him, the king said to the girl, 'Ask me whatever you want, and I will give it to you' (Mark 6:22).

For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries (1 Pet. 4:3).

And when you are plundered,
What will you do?
Though you clothe yourself with crimson,
Though you adorn yourself with ornaments of gold,
Though you enlarge your eyes with paint,
In vain you will make yourself fair;
Your lovers will despise you;
They will seek your life (Jer. 4:30).

Furthermore you sent for men to come from afar, to whom a messenger was sent; and there they came. And you washed yourself for them, painted your eyes, and adorned yourself with ornaments (Ezek. 23:40).

Closing Thoughts on the Seventh Commandment

The ordinance of marriage should be observed. Let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband (1 Cor. 7:2).

Marriage is honourable and the bed undefiled (Heb. 13:4).

God instituted marriage in paradise (Gen. 2:22). He gave the man and the woman to each other in marriage.

Our Lord honoured marriage with his presence (John 2:1? 11). The first miracle he wrought was at a marriage feast when he turned the water into wine.

Marriage is a type and resemblance of the mystical union between Christ and his church: '"For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church' (Eph. 5:31-32).

'You shall not commit adultery.' This commandment needs to be proclaimed throughout the world today We are living in a day when it is almost completely disregarded. Our promiscuous society has issued a challenge to Almighty God saying, 'I will do as I please, live as I please, practise what I please; therefore, stay out of my life with your Word and with your commandments.' Yet the holiness of God sets him against uncleanness.

Yes, the sins of fornication, homosexuality, and adultery against which our Lord spoke - the unlawful intercourse between unmarried men and women and between men and women who are married to another - have plunged our nations into a whirlpool of debauchery which is drowning precious souls by the million! The whole fabric of our society is so eaten up with this sin of lust that God may totally reject us as a society unless there is repentance. True repentance will show itself in the forsaking of this sin and crying to God for mercy through the Lord Jesus Christ.