“You shall not commit adultery. Exodus 20:14
Genesis 1-3 provides us with a myriad of information about God’s structure for life on this earth. These chapters tell us God’s established plan for how we should live.
From the beginning, God created male and female and made the two become one. Marriage was God’s divine plan.
“God ordained the institution of marriage to be a union of one man and one woman for a lifetime (Genesis 2:21–24). Marital fidelity is upheld throughout scripture”. (West, 2010)
“God made men and women to be complementarity to each other. (Genesis 2:18-20) His mandate for them was to be fruitful and multiply. God had a purpose for His creation of marriage. “…marriage—by nature, design, and aim—is a covenant between two persons whose one-flesh commitment is the type of union that produces offspring” (DeYoung, 2018)
The marriage relationship gets its paradigm from the relationship between Christ and the church.
“God designed for a Christian husband and wife to come together in such a way that this union of Christ and the church can be symbolized.” (DeYoung, 2018)
By understanding God’s divine plan for biblical marriage, the seventh commandment can be understood better as a moral code that sees every kind of adultery, fornication, bestiality, homosexuality, and prostitution as a violation of the divine design.
Christ tells us that adultery is not limited to the act itself but also the inward desires of the heart and mind. (Matthew 5:27–30). Therefore, breaking the seventh commandment has everything to do with lustful thoughts, acting on sexual sins (not just adultery), or lustful desires that linger.
You don’t have to be married to break the seventh commandment. God has a sacred covenant for pure sexual desires and fulfillment. – Marriage. When those desires are distorted and removed from the bounds of God’s divine plan, we risk disobeying His commands.
The seventh commandment is for our benefit. “It’s about safeguarding the gift of marriage and promoting the flourishing of the family.” (DeYoung, 2018)
Bibliography
DeYoung, K. (2018). THE 10 COMMANDMENTS What They Mean, Why They Matter, and Why We Should Obey Them
West, R.M. (2010) “The 10 Commandments—Then and Now”
