“You shall not commit adultery.” – Exodus 20:14
Q: What is the seventh commandment?
A: You shall not commit adultery.
What does this mean?
Because we worship and love God, we should lead an innocent and good life in words and actions, and we should love and honor our spouse.
When a man and a woman get married they become one. What does that mean? They are still two distinct persons but their union with one another is so close that God views them, in a sense, as one person. They are joined together legally, financially, emotionally, physically, and spiritually.
- A married couple don’t have two different bank accounts, they have one.
- A married couple don’t have different last names, they have one.
- A married couple don’t have any secrets, they know each other in the deepest possible way.
- A married couple don’t sleep in separate beds, they share the same bed.
- A married couple don’t pray all by themselves, they go to God in prayer together.
These are just some examples of how a married couple are united as one. Can you imagine how hurtful it would be if a wife decided to share money with another man who was not their husband? Or if a husband shared his deepest secrets with another woman? You could probably imagine how hurtful this would be to a spouse, right?
Imagine taking a t-shirt and ripping it down the middle in the front and back. Would you want to wear that t-shirt? Of course not. It’s meant to be one piece of clothing, not two. This is why God commands his people not to commit adultery. It creates problems in marriage that are very hard to undo. You shouldn’t take something that is designed to be united together and rip it apart.
Read Mark 10:6–9:
But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
- Who originally created marriage?
- Based on this text, why should a husband and wife stay together?
Prayer
Our Father, may our marriages display a faithfulness to one another that models the faithfulness that you have for us. Give us the strength to fight sin when we are tempted to not act this way in our marriages. In Jesus’ name, Amen.