No Adultery – The Seventh Commandment

No Adultery

The Seventh Commandment

This commandment forbids all unlawful sexual practices and relations, that is, those engaged outside the bounds of marriage.

Exodus 20:14

“You shall not commit adultery.”

Deuteronomy 5:18

“‘And you shall not commit adultery.’”

Ephesians 5:3-13; 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8

Essentially, adultery is any unlawful sexual activity. It ranges from simple voyeurism to fornication, homosexuality, and bestiality. God is especially severe against sins of adultery, and for very good reasons.

Adultery is proscribed as contrary to the divine plan for a holy and just society. Adultery denies the divine order for human sexuality, attacks marriage as the foundational social institution, makes a mockery of the procreative privilege in our calling to fill the earth, and encourages unbridled passion as a guide to behavior. It is not to be tolerated among the people of God.

In this series of In the Gates we present a detailed explanation of the Law of God, beginning with the Ten Commandments, and working through the statutes and rules that accompany each commandment. For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the practice of ethics, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.MyParuchia.com and click on our Book Store.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.