And you shall not commit adultery. Deuteronomy 5:18
This commandment is almost washed away in this culture where any kind of sex is celebrated and seen as a ‘right’. The enemy has so perverted sex into something that is supposed to be embraced except how God planned it. God planned for a man and his wife to become ‘one’ in love in spirit, soul, and body and the fruit of that union usually resulted in children. Children were seen a ‘blessing’ from God from the moment of conception. But from the early days of Genesis the enemy has perverted this act and plan of God.
So what exactly is adultery? The Hebrew word here is a verb נָאַף naaph (naw-af’) meaning ‘to commit adultery’. Someone who breaks the wedlock vows with sex with another. Like in the commandment forbidding murder so Jesus also takes this commandment and shows the root of the issue… in the heart of an individual.
But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Matthew 5:28
Certainly in this day and culture it is not only men who lust in their hearts for sex outside of the union of marriage of a man and woman. Here the word ‘lust’ in the Greek is the verb epithumeó (ep-ee-thoo-meh’-o) meaning ‘I long for, covet, lust after, set the heart upon’.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers says… “To lust after her.—The intent is more strongly marked in the Greek than in the English. It is not the passing glance, not even the momentary impulse of desire, but the continued gaze by which the impulse is deliberately cherished till it becomes a passion.”
First comes the temptation, and then the intent to dwell on, and then finally to pursue with steps towards the act. Everyone will face temptation, the sin lies not in the temptation but on the road to the passion that drives one to action. At the temptation stage — if one is living in a good relationship with the Holy Spirit, there are plenty of signs to turn away, turn around, stop and go another way. And without the mature fruit of the Holy Spirit in one’s life temptation becomes a major stumbling block.
The marriage vows are not just with your spouse but also ‘in front’ of God … if you are in the ‘family’ of God. Vows are not to be taken lightly or flippantly. It isn’t the Government that cares about your marriage ‘union’… it is God, and also the family of God. For a strong and moral community the fleshly passions must be controlled in the way God designed them to be satisfied in a right manner. This will take discipline and self control. Honoring one another more than yourself is needed in the community of God, respecting everyone’s autonomy to one’s own body before God.
Love is not lust. And lust is not love. Love prefers the other’s welfare over oneself. Lust is ONLY concerned with selfish desires. In the Holy scriptures and family of God sex is designed to be cherished in the marriage of a man and woman. Sex outside of that boundary will cause all sorts of problems and heartache. That is painfully obvious from history.
This is why Paul talks at length in Galatians 5 about the works / desires of the flesh. And how the Fruit of the Holy Spirit is needed for one’s life in the family of God.
This commandment is VERY simply stated, but oh so hated by the enemy, who does everything they can to twist and pervert the very special gift God has given humankind.