Dealing with Adultery – The Seventh Commandment

Dealing with Adultery

The Seventh Commandment

The Church must deal with adultery in its midst.

Deuteronomy 22:30

“A man shall not take his father’s wife, so that he does not uncover his father’s nakedness.”

1 Corinthians 5:1, 2, 13

Leviticus 20:11

“If a man lies with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness; both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.”

1 Corinthians 5:1, 2, 13

This statute is especially important for us today in understanding how to apply the Law of God to the believing community because of the incident recorded in 1 Corinthians 5. Here a man was having an affair with his father’s wife. The woman must not have been a believer because no sanctions were applied to her. The man, however, was in direct violation of this statute, and Paul meant for the Corinthians to honor it and to take action against him.

However, the Church does not bear the sword, and we live in the time of the Spirit, when the possibility of repentance is real. The offender was to be excommunicated, and none of the members of the Body of Christ in Corinth were to have any association with him. However, as it seems he came to his senses and repented, Paul instructed the Church in Corinth to receive him back into fellowship (2 Cor. 2:5-11).

This example does not argue for the elimination of the death penalty; rather, it teaches us that the Body of Christ must strive for holiness and repentance at all times and must guard itself against the cancerous effects of undisciplined sin. Further, it must pray for the world, that God would work repentance in the hearts of those He is pleased to save.

We are now accepting registrations for the course, Spiritual Maturity 1: Revival. This free, six-session course by T. M. Moore allows you to study by yourself or with a mentor, and includes free resources from Patrick, Columbanus, Luther, and Edwards, among others. Visit The Ailbe Seminary for more information on this training opportunity.

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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.