Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Deuteronomy 5:18
Neither shalt thou commit adultery.
Deu 5:18
Neither shalt thou commit adultery.
The Seventh Commandment
The original word which our translators restrain to committing adultery is of a large signification, and comprises all kinds of uncleanness and lewdness. So that all unlawful lust and carnal pleasure is here forbidden, and we are enjoined to preserve chastity in every kind and degree. I begin with the sins forbidden.
1. Polygamy, or having more wives and husbands than one at one time, is here condemned; for this is contrary to the primitive institution and law in Gen 2:24.
2. Divorce, as we learn from our Saviours interpretation of this commandment in Mat 5:31-32.
3. Incest, that is, lewdness committed with those that are our near kindred. That we may particularly know who these are, they are set down distinctly in Lev 18:4. Fornication, which is the defiling of an unmarried woman.
5. Adultery is a direct sin against this commandment, and is the particular kind of uncleanness which is expressly named in it. This sin is extremely heinous, because there is not only an injury done to the woman, by setting her into a course of unfaithfulness and even downright perjury, and thereby hazarding the salvation of her soul, but to the man also in whom she is concerned, by robbing him of the incommunicable right he hath in his wife. This proves it to be the highest injustice; and it might be added that this injury admits of no reparation. On which score perhaps death was inflicted on the adulterer by the Mosaic law (Lev 20:10). And other lawgivers, even among the Pagans, punished this notorious offence with the loss of life. There are other lewd practices forbidden by this commandment, among which rape, or ravishing of a woman, is one. Here is forbidden voluntary self-pollution, or persons committing folly alone on their bodies. For which kind of disorder Onan was punished by the hand of God: the Lord slew him (Gen 38:10). Here is likewise forbidden all immoderate use of carnal pleasure. And lastly, here is condemned all unnatural lust, as sodomy and bestiality, which are both mentioned together, and branded with the titles of abomination and confusion in Lev 18:22-23. Thus far I have spoken of the actual sins of uncleanness which are comprehended in this commandment.
1. This commandment strikes at all unclean thoughts and desires. Our Saviour acquaints us that there is the adultery of the heart (Mat 5:28). Namely, when the thoughts and inward inclinations of the mind are corrupted, and are a preparative to outward defilements.
2. There is the adultery of the eye, which we learn from the Saviours exposition of this commandment (Mat 5:28), where looking on a woman to lust after her, because the heart or mind which gives denomination to all moral actions is engaged here; and this it is which diffuses the defilement into the outward senses.
3. There is the adultery and uncleanness of the tongue; for if wanton looks are adulterous, then obscene words are of the same nature. Wherefore the apostle commands the Colossian Christians to put away filthy communication out of their mouths (Col 3:8). As he had before left this prohibition with the Ephesians, Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth (Eph 4:29). And again, the very mentioning of lewd things is forbid (Eph 5:3-4; Eph 5:12).
4. Next, there is the adultery of the ear, that is, listening to such kind of discourse as is filthy, delighting to be entertained with lascivious talk, with obscene songs, and unchaste poems, with which this age abounds.
5. And so it doth that of lascivious gestures, and whatsoever tends to the promoting of lust–as lascivious dresses, and all manner of enticements to unchaste practices. I will in the next place propound the reasons and arguments which we are to make use of against it. And some of these are proper to Christianity; that is, they were never used by heathen moralists, but are to be found only in the apostolical writings; as those three which we meet with together in 1Co 6:6; 1Co 6:15; 1Co 6:18-20. Then again, there are arguments against this sinful practice, taken from the spiritual, the temporal, and the eternal evil which attends it. Thus I have been all this time in pursuit of the negative part of this commandment. I proceed now to the affirmative, which is the plain reverse of what hath been said, and may be comprised in few words. We are enjoined here to be chaste and pure in our minds. We are enjoined likewise to preserve our bodies pure, and all parts of them, the tongue, the eye, the countenance, the ear, and all the avenues or organs of bodily sense of perception. We are to take care that our deportment be modest and grave, and so well regulated and ordered that we discover nothing of wantonness. Moreover, this commandment requires that we use all the means and helps which are useful in order to the preservation of our chastity, and the preventing of uncleanness. Sobriety and temperance in eating and drinking. Avoiding occasions of provocation to lascivious thoughts or actions. Diligence in the calling which Providence has placed us in. Solemn resolutions and vows. A deep sense and great dread of the Almighty, and of His judgments. All these particulars contain in them the most sovereign remedies against lust, and helps to the exerting of the contrary virtue. But there is one yet behind, and that is this: in order to chastity and purity lead a conjugal life. (J. Edwards, D. D.)
The Seventh Commandment
I. The command. The command is a simple, unqualified, irrevocable negative. Thou shalt not! No argument is used, no reason given, because none is required. The sin is of so destructive and damning a nature that it is in itself sufficient cause for the stern forbidding.
1. It is a sin against the individual. This needs no proof. Nature visits the sin with the heaviest penalties in every department of the complex being of man. The terrible results of unchaste life in the purely physical realm are such as cannot be named here. Every man of science will bear his testimony to the awful demand that nature makes for purity, and will assert that she has no pity for the unclean.
2. It is a sin against the family. The sacredness of motherhood and childhood, and the demands they make upon the care and thought of all, are secured and met in the Divine institution of marriage. Wherever the rights of the marriage relationship are violated and set aside, Gods provision for both is broken down, and the disastrous result of the breakdown of the family circle and entity results. When the family is destroyed as a perfect whole by the sin of unchastity, an incalculable harm is done to the children. There is no more heart-breaking announcement in the newspapers than that which declares that in the granting of a decree nisi, the charge of the children has been given to one parent. Therein lies the destruction of the family after the Divine pattern, and the sin that leads to it is indeed terrible for this reason also.
3. It is a sin against society. Society is a union of families. Every attempt to create society upon any other basis is wicked, and ends in disaster. The sin which blights the marriage relation and destroys the family is the enemy of all true socialism. All the things that may be had in common can only so be shared, as it is forever understood that communism in the realm of sex is the most damnable sin against the commonwealth.
4. It is a sin against the nation. The greatness of a people depends upon the purity and strength of the people, and in every nation where the marriage relation is violated with impunity the virus of death is surely and certainly at work.
5. It is a sin against the race. No man can deny his accountability for a share in the development or destruction of the race. The solidarity of humanity is more than a dream of visionaries. It is an indisputable fact. Every life is contributing its quota of force to the forces that make or mar. All are hindering or hastening the perfect day. The crime of prolonging sorrow and agony lies at the door of every impure human being.
6. It is a sin against the universe. The life of the universe is love. The origin of all is love, for God is love. The propagation of all is love. From the highest form, that of the unity of the marriage relation, through all the lower spaces of action, love is the law of growth. The lair of the wild beast is fiercely guarded by the love that holds it sacred. The nesting of the birds is token of the impulse of the love life that throbs through all creation. The bee that carries the pollen from flower to flower is the messenger of the same instinct. Love is everywhere. The sin of lustful unchastity is the violation of love, blighting and destroying it.
7. It is a sin against God. (Rev 21:8.)
II. Application of the command today. There are certain signs of the times which point to the necessity for a re-statement of this commandment. The first of these is the tendency, which is only too apparent, to loosen the binding nature of the marriage tie. There seems to be an increasingly popular notion that the marriage relation is a civil one only. This is a vital error. It is wholly Divine. Another sign of the times in this direction is the filthy fiction which has polluted the realm of literature in recent years, fiction in which the marriage relation is treated with amused pity, and whoremongers and adulterers are pitied and excused, if not defended. Then, again, is there not a growing danger of ministering to impurity in the multiplication on every hand of callings for women which throw them among men and give them wages which are insufficient? Then holy one would thank God if some word that was not prudish or narrow might be spoken to the women of this country about their dress. The half dress of the society woman is surely a sign of reversion to type, and has in it the pandering to animalism which has for ages been the curse of the marriage relation. And yet once more. There is an anomaly that dies hard in the distinction that is being made between the guilt of man and woman in this matter of unchastity. When General Booth issued that remarkable book, Darkest England, he said, in defence of his using the word fornication, Why not say prostitution? For this reason: prostitution is a word applied to one half of the vice, and that the most pitiable. Fornication hits both sinners alike. The importance of that statement cannot be over-estimated. Until the man who sins is branded with as deep a scar as is the woman, that public opinion which shields him is guilty of complicity with this vice which is deadly and damning.
III. The Christian ethic. After all that has been said, there yet remains the most searching, withering words of all to repeat. They fell from the lips of the Incarnate Purity in that manifesto of His kingdom which He gave to His disciples during the days of His sojourn on the earth I say unto you, that everyone that looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart, etc. (Mat 5:28-32.) (G. Campbell Morgan.)
The Seventh Commandment
As we are men, and so the one part of our composition is body, we have all animal appetites in common with other sensitive creatures; hunger, thirst, and the like, are common to us with all the animal world. But then, seeing we are reasonable beings also, and should be religious, God will have these animal appetites kept in due subjection, and directed according to the measures He has prescribed for that purpose: that is to say, no animal appetite must be allowed to usurp a place that does not belong to it, but must be kept within such bounds, and ordered by such rules as God hath set it. And so it is regarding that animal appetite more specially designed in this commandment.
I. It requires us to be chaste.
1. Inward chastity is keeping the heart for God, not suffering it to be defiled by any unchaste and filthy delights.
2. Chastity is also outward, expressive of that purity of heart which lodges within.
II. Temperance is the other duty required by this commandment. By temperance is meant a holy moderation concerning meat, drink, sleep, and relaxation.
1. Intemperance is prohibited for its own sake.
2. Intemperance is not only prohibited as it is sinful in itself, but also as it gives occasion to and nourishes lust. And this a life of indolence does: it is the very food of lust (Eze 16:49-50; Jer 5:7-8). Thus what made the Sodomites so wanton but fulness of bread? What made Lot commit such dreadful incest with his own daughters but drunkenness? (Gen 19:31-36.) Or what filled David, or his son Amnon after him, with so much lust but a fit of sloth and idleness? (2Sa 11:2; 2Sa 13:1-14.) I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, saith St. Paul (1Co 9:27).
Well, and how did he do this?
1. Be moderate in the use of meats and drinks, and, as need is, give yourselves to fasting and abstinence.
2. Be diligent in your calling. Labour keeps the mind employed, and the body under; whereas sloth both genders lust and gives it opportunity.
3. We must be aware of the recreations we use, and how we use them. (S. Walker, B. A.)
The Seventh Commandment
I. The aggravations, more especially, of the sins of fornication and adultery; which may also with just reason be applied to all other unnatural lusts.
1. They are opposite to sanctification, even as darkness is to light, hell to heaven.
2. These sins are inconsistent with that relation we pretend to stand in to Christ as members of His Body, inasmuch as we join ourselves in a confederacy with His profligate enemies.
3. They bring with them many other sins, as they tend to vitiate the affections, deprave the mind, defile the conscience, and provoke God to give persons up to spiritual judgments, which will end in their running into all excess of riot.
II. The occasions of these sins, to be avoided by those who would not break this commandment; and these are–
1. Intemperance, or excess in eating or drinking (Gen 19:31).
2. Idleness, consisting either in the neglect of business, or indulging to much sleep, which occasions many temptations (2Sa 11:1-27. I, 2).
3. Pride in apparel, or other ornaments, beyond the bounds of modesty (Isa 3:16, etc.; 2Pe 2:7-8).
4. Keeping evil company (Pro 6:27; Pro 6:32).
III. As for the remedies against it, these are: as exercising a constant watchfulness against all temptations thereunto; avoiding all conversation with those men or books which tend to corrupt the mind, and fill it with levity, under a pretence of improving it; but more especially a retaining a constant sense of Gods all-seeing eye, His infinite probity and vindictive justice (Gen 39:9). (Thomas Ridglet, D. D.)
Neither shalt thou commit adultery
In the Sixth Commandment God takes under His protection the body and life of man. But a man should also love his wife as himself, etc. (Eph 5:1-33). Here, then, God takes the married spouse under His protecting care, and honours marriage; and as the enemy of souls calls up some passion which militates against each of these commands, against this he sends the serpent of the lust of the flesh which creeps softly into mens hearts. More, he turns the breaking of this command into a jest–a jest likely to end where the laughter is turned into weeping and gnashing of teeth. Consider–
I. How we may rightly regard the married estate.
1. Those in our day who desire to overturn the Divine order of things begin by attacking Christian marriage. Their aim is so clearly evidenced that none can mistake it. But there are others, even in the Christian Church, who, knowingly or not, support this outrage by seeking to make marriage an entirely civil contract. God forces His blessings on none; but Christians will not consider this a proper view of marriage. They will regard it as a Divine order (Gen 2:18), ill which man and wife are bound in Him in love and faithfulness till death shall separate them.
2. Marriage is to be regarded as an holy estate, and blessed. The children of parents who thus think of marriage will rise and call them blessed, whilst men shrink from the adulterers as promise breakers, perjurers, faithless; and if anyone thinks there is not much in an adulterous act, if it be not known, he or she acts like a heathen and despises this Divine order.
3. It sometimes happens that where a time of wickedness in a nation has been followed by a period of punishment it is found that the downward course was begun by a disregard of the honour of marriage, e.g., the Greek and Roman people, and France before the Revolution. Where marriage is no more honoured judgment is near at hand. Then unchastity becomes shameless; the number of children born out of wedlock increases; sin, shame, disorder, etc., prevail, and judgment at last descends (Heb 13:4).
II. How shall men best arrange for the married state?
1. Our forefathers said three things were necessary–to begin well, continue well, end well. How shall we begin well? The proverb says, Marriages are made in heaven; and certainly to begin well we must begin with God. What Eliezer of Damascus did for his masters son we must each do ourselves–begin with God. If we do not, then there is little wonder if the proverb comes true, Marry in haste, repent at leisure. Begin with the wise counsel of Christian parents also.
2. How shall men best continue in this state? Let each love and honour his (or her) partner in life (Eph 5:28-29). In this relationship we need to have wisdom, self-denial, patience, forbearance, submission; but all these are comprehended in love. But each must also honour the other. Where such honour is there will be love–as Christ loved the Church.
3. How shall men end the married state best? When they say, We shall continue it in God until He shall end it in death. There is a way by which marriage can be dissolved before death–the only way–through adultery. This really disannuls marriage in the very fact; and even if it be hidden, God Himself will take it in hand (Heb 13:4). Many an adulteress or adulterer goes abroad with bold forehead and bids defiance to the world. But Scripture simply places them with the godless, thieves, etc., and says such shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
III. How shall men best prepare themselves for entrance on the married state?
1. We must fear and love God, so that we may live virtuously and chastely in word and deed. Remember that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. Young men and women should seek to enter this state in an unblemished manhood and womanhood. Avoid unchaste thoughts, words, looks, unchaste songs or jests, etc. The heart and thoughts should be clean. Blessed are the pure in heart.
2. There are two things unheard of in the world, said a famous pious man, unrewarded virtue and unpunished vice. Young men and maidens, flee occasions to vice. Where wine goes in shame goes out, etc. Avoid evil companionship. Better alone than in bad company. Opportunity makes thieves; so, too, it makes adulterers. Avoid those whose tongues are unchaste. Often a word is like a spark to powder. If a worm is at the heart the tree will fall. Do not be ashamed of shamefacedness. If you blush it is God warning you. Shame prevents disgrace. Flee from idleness. It is a root of much evil. Guard your youth. Virtue and a good name are a rich dowry to which God will add much interest. (K. H. Caspari.)
The crime of adultery
When I look, he said, at the iniquities which abound in the present day in our cities, I feel the time has come to cry aloud and spare not. If it be necessary for men to live in adultery, and if they must go to the house of the harlot, I dont know a quicker way down to hell than that is. Any man who can give up his virtue, and turn away from a home of purity, and stoop so low as to go the way of the strange woman, his ruin will be sure and very quick. How many a young man who follows her path goes down quicker than that! He must have money, and he soon begins by robbing his employer, as one crime leads to another, and at last his conscience becomes so seared that he tries to make it out to be a necessity. But does God make a mistake when He says, Thou shalt not commit adultery, and excuse you because you cannot control your passions? It may be that you ruin some mans daughter or wife: then some man will probably ruin yours by and by. There was one place in America where I touched upon this sin; and a man of violent temper said if his wife had been there she would have slapped me in the face. But within a week it transpired that he was actually living with the wife of another. Oh, adulterer! what will you do when God shall bring you into judgment? The sins committed in darkness and in secret He will bring unto light. Do not, therefore, believe that God will not bring you into judgment, for it is only a question of weeks or months, or at most a few short years. (D. L. Moody.)
An adulterers miserable end
There has recently died in the South of England a captain who in years past was engaged in watching the coast of Africa in order to the stoppage of the slave trade. He had been successful in capturing several cargoes of slaves., These, consisting largely of young African girls, were taken on board the captains vessel. For liberty! Yes; so it was heralded to the world–but according to the commanders own confession, for shameful treatment in his cabin. A gentleman well known thus describes the captains confession at the close of his shameful life: I am afraid to be alone at night. The faces of those black girls, with their eyes of fire and shrieks of despair, fill my room and my vision. And in this miserable state he died. Who need affect surprise that there is a hell to localise such monsters in? These awful confessions were made in the vain attempt to alleviate the fearful agony of a conscience whose torment anticipated the coming judgment before the bar of Christ. (Christian Herald.)
Purity in literature
Of late years, I am afraid, there has been a distinct retrogression in the conscience of the nation, so far as national purity is concerned. For example, some of the novels published today deal largely, if not entirely, with subjects of which no pure-minded man or woman ever speaks. Not long ago a certain novel was issued from the press that was as poisonous in its effects on the soul as sewer gas is on the body. It was one of those books, as Mr. Lowell once said, which if read make you feel that you need to be sprinkled with some disinfecting fluid in order to get rid of the infection. Some years ago a distinguished public man said that when he was a boy at one of our public schools he had put into his hand by an evil companion a bad book, and that for years after reading it lie could not get rid of the stain it had left on his mind. It is impossible to exaggerate the evil done by such an unclean publication. Art for arts sake is their watchword, and the result of this debased conception is works which are not literature and not art, which smell of the sewer, and are only fit to be burned. The man who writes a book that incites to impure thought is on the same moral level as the man who makes adultery easy. It tends by a swift and easy path to the violation of this Seventh Commandment. (G. S. Barrett, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
[See comments on De 5:17].
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
18. Neither The Hebrew and not. All the commandments that follow, as well as this, commence with the conjunction and the negative.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
XIX
THE DECALOGUE THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT
Exo 20:14
1. What is the scriptural basis for the Seventh Commandments?
Ans. The answer is Gen 1:26 : “God made them male and female,” and Gen 2:18-25 , which describes how the woman was formed from man, and, taken with the man, expresses their unity. Gen 2:3-8 , restates the passage from the first chapter. Now the Seventh Commandment roots in this Genesis passage.
2. What are the lessons of these scriptures?
Ans. These Old Testament passages furnish four great lessons: (1) The unity of the man and the woman: “They twain shall be one flesh,” bone of bone and flesh of flesh. The Hebrew word for man is ish ; the Hebrew word for woman is isshah and means ess. Just like you say peer and peeress, baron and baroness, marquis and marchioness; the feminine of man means “derived from man.” Charles Wesley, the great Methodist hymn writer, has used these words in a song:
Not from his head the woman took,
And made her husband to overlook;
Not from his feet, as one designed
The footstool of the stronger kind;
But fashioned for himself a bride:
An equal taken from his side. That is the first lesson in these scriptures, teaching the unity of the man and the woman. (2) Marriage is a divine institution. Gen 1:27 ; Gen 2:22 , and Mat 19:6 . God made them male and female. God made the woman out of a part of the man, and presented her to the man. Therefore “what God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” (3) Marriage is the first and the highest and the most important human relation, derived from this part of Genesis: “therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife” (Gen 2:24 ). Just as soon as the marriage relation is established, a new family is established; and that marriage obligation is paramount over every other human obligation, or every obligation based upon a human relation. A man is more under obligation to love and to take care of his wife than he is to stay at home and take care of his father and mother. A woman is under more obligation to love and to cherish her husband than she is to love and to cherish her own father and mother, or her own brothers and sisters. It is the first human relation, the highest human relation, the most important human relation and it antedated even the sabbath day. (4) The fourth lesson: Marriage typifies the covenant relation between God and Israel, Isa 54:5 : “Thy Maker is thy husband”; and also the covenant relation between Christ and his church. There are a number of passages on this: Rom 5:14 ; 2Co 11:2 ; Eph 5:22-23 ; Rev 19:5-10 . All these scriptures are devoted to that idea; all of them need special mention. In Rom 5 Paul shows that Adam the first was a type of Adam the Second; and as the woman was derived from Adam the first, so the church was derived from Adam the Second; that as the first Adam was in a deep sleep when God took the material of the woman from his side, so the Second Adam must sleep in death, in order that the church might be extracted from his side. And the other passage, the most remarkable, is the one in Eph 5 . I think I had better quote a part of it to you, though you may be quite familiar with it. We want to get at the basis of this Seventh Commandment (Eph 5:22-23 ) “Wives, be in subjection unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is also the head of the church, being himself the saviour of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives also be to their husbands in everything. Husbands, Jove your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. Even so ought husbands also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his own wife loveth himself: for no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as Christ also the church; because we are members of his body. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the church. Nevertheless do ye also severally love each one his own wife even as himself; and let the wife see that she fear her husband.”
Now, these are the four great lessons of the Genesis passage without the details: (1) The essential unity of man and woman; (2) Marriage is a divine institution; (3) Marriage is the first and highest and most important human relation; (4) Marriage typifies the covenant relation between God and Israel, and the covenant relation between Christ and his church. I quote a closing passage on the last (Rev 19:6 ) : “And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as of the voice of mighty thunders, saying, Hallelujah: for the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigneth. Let us rejoice and be exceeding glad, and let us give the glory unto him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And it was given unto her that she should array herself in fine linen, bright and pure: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they that are bidden to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” Now having considered the basis of the commandment, let us repeat the commandment: “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” In other words, Thou shalt not be unfaithful to the marriage obligation (Exo 22:14 ).
3. What is Christ’s exposition of this?
Ans. You see that, on the face of it, it looks as though it speaks only to married people. Thou shalt not be unfaithful to the marriage vows; it does look like a limitation. Now let us see how Christ expounds that in Mat 5:27-28 , a part of his great Sermon on the Mount (that sermon is the exposition of the law) : “Ye have heard that it was said, Thou shalt not commit adultery; but I say unto you, that every one that looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” Now Jesus is not supplementing the Mosaic law; he is simply fulfilling it, filling it out, showing the spirituality of it; and that it does not refer (1) simply to an overt act, and (2) that it does not refer simply to the marriage relation; but it refers to the passion, whether it ever finds expression or not.
4. What is the source of all violation of this commandments?
Ans. In Mat 15:19 , Jesus says, “For out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications,” etc. There the commandment strikes at the state: “out of the heart,” “whosoever looketh”; there is a reference to the passion. “Do not commit adultery” there is an overt act. Now the law takes cognizance of the whole subject, not merely of the fruit of the tree, not of the flower from which the fruit is formed, not of the bough upon which the fruit grows, nor of the trunk from which the branch extends, but of the very root of the tree. That is the law.
5. What was Moses’ law of divorce?
Ans. We have spoken of this relation. Now, Moses, who recorded this commandment we are studying, afterward permitted divorces, and we want to see the law under which he permitted it. Deu 24:1-4 : “When a man taketh a wife, and marrieth her, then it shall be, if she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some unseemly thing in her, that he shall write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s wife. And if the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, who took her to be his wife; her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before Jehovah; and thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which Jehovah thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.” So that if a man is divorced from a woman under this Mosaic law, she may marry somebody else, and that second man may divorce her, or that second man may die, but that first man must not marry her again. Now that is the Mosaic law of divorce.
6. What is Christ’s law of divorce?
Ans. It is found in Mat 19:3-10 : “The Pharisees also came unto him, trying him, and saying, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And he answered and said, Have ye not read, that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh? So that they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. They say unto him, Why then did Moses command to give a bill of divorcement, and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses for your hardness of heart suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it hath not been so. And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and he that marrieth her when she is put away committeth adultery. The disciples say unto him, If the case of the man is so with his wife, it is not expedient to marry.” Now in this v. 9: “Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication” What is the distinction between adultery and fornication? Fornication is a general term, and adultery is a specific term. Fornication includes adultery. See in Dr. Broadus’ commentary on this nineteenth chapter in which the distinction is made between fornication and adultery, and the proof be gives is from the Greek. Now if Christ had said, “Whosoever shall put away his wife except for adultery,” then his statement would not have been comprehensive enough; he would have been using a limited term, and it would not have covered some cases, for instance, such a case as this: A man and a woman are betrothed, and under the Jewish law it is kindred to marriage, that is, it is as binding. Now the woman before marriage violates this law; then that man could put her away for that offense under the Jewish law. But if Christ had limited it to adultery, an offense committed after marriage only would have been covered by that term. So he selected the broad term, fornication, which applies not only to married people, but to unmarried people. I am very glad to bring out that distinction, and particularly as a few years ago a bishop in Waco took the position that a man could not put away his wife for adultery; that the only ground upon which he could put her away was a failure of consideration of chastity when they were married; that she was unchaste when they were married; that she only “fooled” him, which was a very erroneous interpretation.
7. What is Christ’s preventive against unchastity?
Ans. In Mat 5:29-30 , he says, “And if thy right eye causeth thee to stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not thy whole body be cast into hell.” This is also recorded in Mar 9:43-48 . Now let me read the connection that you may see the preventive: “I say unto you, that every one that looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Mat 5:28 ).
8. Is this remedy to be understood literally or spiritually?
Ans. Unquestionably, it is to be understood as spiritual. To show you that it must be so understood, let us suppose that a man uses his eye looking on a woman to lust after her, and he therefore plucks out his eye. That would not prevent the offense; it could go on with both his eyes plucked out. And if his hands were cut off, as long as the adultery came out of his heart, it could still go on. So it is perfectly foolish to talk about this excision being legal; it is spiritual. It means this: that whatever object entices you to sin, the preventive is, turn away from it; give it up; cut it off. That is the spiritual thought. Like Paul says, “I keep my body under.” As the little girl in the Sunday school expressed it, “Paul kept his soul on top.” “I keep my body under; keep the soul on top.” The members of the body are merely instrumental, and Paul says that all sin is apart from the body. The body cannot sin. The body is used as an instrument of sin, but the sin comes from the inner man; it corner out of the heart of the man.
9. What is Paul’s law of separation between husband and wife?
Ans. Suppose we read 1Co 7:10-16 : “But unto the married I give charge, yea not I, but the Lord, That the wife depart not from her husband (but should she depart, let her remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband); and that the husband leave not his wife. But to the rest say I, not the Lord [that is, when he said that, he was quoting the words that Christ spoke; he does not mean that what he is going to say is not from the Lord, but it means it is not recorded in the life of Christ; he says he speaks by the Spirit himself, but what he is now going to say is a part of the information that had not been verbally given during Christ’s lifetime]: If any brother hath an unbelieving wife, and she is content to dwell with him, let him not leave her. And the woman that hath an unbelieving husband, and he is content to dwell with her, let her not leave her husband. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified in the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy. Yet if the unbelieving departeth, let him depart: the brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us in peace. For how knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? or how knowest thou, O husband, whether thou shalt save thy wife?” You see the case that Paul is discussing is this kind: Suppose a man is converted, a married man, and his wife is not converted, and is intensely opposed to his being a Christian; she may be a heathen or she may be just a worldly minded person. Now is he to put away his unbelieving wife? No. Shall this unbelieving wife remain with her husband? Yes. But suppose this unbelieving one won’t remain, just simply won’t do it? Well, “if the unbelieving depart, let him depart.” You have done all you could; now let him depart. In other words, there can be, and often is, in this life a separation between husband and wife where it is on account of one of the parties (it takes two to make a thing stand) making it impossible for the two to live together. If one of them wants to go, and will go, why, let that one go.
10. In 1Co 7:15 : “If the unbelieving depart, let him depart; the brother or sister is not under bondage in such cases.” Does that create an exception to Mat 19:9 ? Matthew says that no man can put away his wife, save for fornication. Now here is a separation that is not based on fornication. Does this language, “a brother or sister is not under bondage in such cases,” create a new and additional ground for divorce?
Ans. I will let Paul answer it himself in v. II. He had just said, “But if she [the unbelieving wife] depart, let her remain unmarried.” Now, there can be separation, but there cannot be divorce in this case. Where divorce comes, you can remarry, but you cannot remarry on mere separation. Take Paul again in 1Co 7:39 : “A wife is bound for so long time as her husband liveth, but if her husband be dead, she is free to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.” You see that Paul then does not present a second ground of divorce, but of separation. Now I will take a case in point. One of the oldest, most venerable and useful ministers of God that we have had in Texas was Brother Z. N. Morrell. When somewhat late in life he married, probably the second time, his first wife being dead, this later marriage was a mistake. The woman would not live with him. She would “blow him up and blow the home up, and blow any visitor up.” The brethren could not now come to see Brother Morrell but that woman would fire a bombshell at them just as soon as they would come in the gate. He said, “Now this kind of thing will not do; it stands in the way of my work; and this being the case, we had better live apart. I will take care of you as long as you live, but cannot fill my duty as a Christian and a preacher with you here in the house doing as you do.” So they had what is called in law a divorce, a divorce from bed and board, but not a divorce e vinculo matrimonii , a divorce from the bond of matrimony. It was a separation but not such a separation as permits remarriage.
11. What is the meaning of the saying of the disciples in Mat 19:10 , if Christ had laid down the law of divorce, and Christ’s reply?
Ans. I will quote it: Christ had just said, “Whosoever shall put away his wife, except for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery, and he that marrieth her when she is put away committeth adultery.” Mat 19:10 says, “If the case of the man is so with his wife, it is not expedient to marry.” What does that mean? They thought it a mighty good thing to marry under the Mosaic law of marriage; that if they did not like a woman, they could just send her off with a piece of paper and go and marry somebody else. But when Christ came in and showed them the indissoluble nature of the bond, and the sanctity of the relation, they said if this is the law of marriage it is not expedient to marry at all. That is exactly what they meant: that they had better let the marriage relation alone. Our Lord then goes on to say that some people have let marriage alone, but not for such a reason as they allege. He says a certain saying is for those who may receive it: some on account of physical disability are eunuchs from their mother’s womb, etc., but God teaches that marriage is honorable and there is a command to multiply and fill the earth up with population, and they were wrong in saying that because the marriage relation is so stringent, therefore it is expedient not to marry at all.
12. Christ’s remedy for unchastity?
Ans. It means that when you look into your heart and at your thoughts, you find, even if there have been no overt acts, that you have violated this law. Now, what is the remedy? The atoning blood of Christ, just as you have a remedy for every other sin. Put it into the hands of the Advocate and through the blood plea you are forgiven. There is no difference in a sin of this kind and any other kind of sin, and the remedy for all of them is one remedy the blood of Christ.
13. What is the relation of sanctification to this sin?
Ans. Listen to this answer: Regeneration takes hold of the carnal mind, which is enmity against God and not subject to his law, and neither indeed can be. Regeneration changes that mind, that nature. It is the imparting of a holy disposition; but notwithstanding regeneration the Christian finds that even after he has been a subject of regeneration; even after he has been justified through the application of the blood of Christ, he finds a law in his members warring against the law of his mind. Now comes in Christ’s great practical remedy: there is a legal remedy, viz.: finding forgiveness through the blood of Christ. But the practical remedy is through sanctification: that is, beginning in regeneration, the Spirit continues his work to make you purer and purer in mind and thought, holier and holier, more and more like God, until, when the full work of sanctification has been accomplished at the death of the body, then you are as holy as Christ is holy. You not only have had a change of nature in regeneration; you not only are complete in Christ through justification, but you have been rendered practically as holy as God is holy in yourself. That is the relation of sanctification to this doctrine.
Oh, how many times has the cry gone up when a man finds a law in his members working against the law of his mind, causing him to do things that he would not, and to leave undone things that he would do, finding himself brought under subjection to the law of sin and death, until he cries out: “Wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?” Sanctification is continually carried on until body, mind, and soul are all as perfect as God. So we cannot object to this law of Christ on account of its ideal character in not making the law to be a sliding scale to fit human infirmity. The law is holy, the law is just, the law is good; and you cannot make it go down 100 miles to suit one man, 1,000 miles to suit another man, 10,000 miles to suit still another, and so on; and if its standard differs not in one part of the world from what it is in another part, it must stand as God gave it; that in your heart you must not violate this law; in your thought you must not do it; nor in the overt act. That is the law. Justification will cover all offenses; conviction and petition will cover all accruing violation; sanctification will put you in the condition that you will not want to violate it, ultimately. When Paul has just given the law, he says that the law holds till death, as the woman is under the law to her husband as long as he lives, and that there is but one offense known under heaven among men that in the sight of God will justify an absolute divorce and allow remarriage.
OTHER QUESTIONS 1. What is the law in the members?
Ans. It is the residue or the remainder of the depravity in nature, not yet subdued by regeneration. Regeneration imparts a principle of life, but the entire nature is not yet subdued unto God, and through the body as an instrument it tempts the man and tempts him to sin. That is the law in the members.
2. Does fornication include drunkenness?
Ans. No.
3. Does it include profligacy?
Ans. When profligacy refers to the matter in hand. A man can be profligate in other matters. It refers to all forms of violation of purity in the sexual relation.
4. Should a church discipline one of its members who marries a man divorced for an unscriptural cause?
Ans. That is a question to which there has never been a practical solution. I confess that I am more stalled over the discipline question, as under this law, than everything else in the world put together. I never did have anything to bother me like that matter. Now there will cases come up much more complicated than the way this question puts it. It supposes that he marries the divorced woman and is a member of the church before the offense was committed, and was under the jurisdiction of the church when the offense was committed. If I had been the preacher and I had known that he was marrying the woman divorced, and not from a scriptural standpoint, I never would have officiated at his marriage, and if he had asked me if it was lawful under Christ, I would have told him no, it was not, and if he violated that commandment, he would be disowning his allegiance to Jesus Christ. I had a most touching letter of appeal not many months ago, from one of the best young men and one of the best young ladies I ever knew. I doubt whether any church can be found with a purer, more chaste young Christian woman than she was. Now, in the man’s case he had been divorced, but not for the scriptural reason. Years had passed away; his wife still living though not married again. He fell in love with this girl, and they wrote me to know if they might, under Christ’s law, marry. I said, “Do not do it; do not do it.” I said, “It is better sometimes to deny yourselves than it is to gratify yourselves. A greater accretion of moral stamina comes from renunciation than from gratification; and now do not marry.” And they wrote back that they would not. Now this question: If they had married would you discipline them? That the law had been violated is unquestionable. The object of discipline is to “gain” a party. Sometimes when the law is violated there comes such a complication that to attempt to exercise discipline would do more harm than good. For instance, suppose two or three children have been born to these people. Now you go in and discipline the mother; what about the children? Who is to take care of them? Now I would say this, that my mind is perfectly clear that if one had been married in the case of the divorce not on scriptural grounds, I would say, “Do not Join the church; do the best you can outside. You cannot join the church without doing harm to the church,” and I am very much inclined to the position that the discipline had better be exercised, but it takes a strong man and a strong church to be able to do it. Some preachers will lose their pastorate on it, because there are complications.
5. In case of separation where divorce is not allowed, if one party marries is the other free?
Ans. Yes. Not per se, but he can state to the church how they were living apart for peace’s sake, and how it is a clear case of violation of marriage law. Any church would say “You are free to marry.” You see that brings in the justifiable ground. The divorce cases are all over the world; and it commenced, of course, with the “big bugs” of the rich people first. They started it; they got the idea that they, because they had the money, were not amenable to anyone; and what is called the “Four Hundred,” the “Upper Ten” of New York has scarcely a family without a divorce, followed by a remarriage, and you see them at their parties introducing one another: “Well, Mrs. C., I am glad to meet you; I hope you have gotten along O. K. with my former husband.” “Mr. D. let me introduce you to my first husband’s second wife,” until shame has come upon the nation; the sanctity of the family has been destroyed, and children are ashamed to hear the name of father and mother repeated.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Deu 5:18 Neither shalt thou commit adultery.
Ver. 18. Neither shalt thou commit. ] Or, And thou shalt not commit, &c., and so in the following laws; to teach us that the law is but one copulative, a as the schools speak. For the sanction indeed, it is disjunctive; but for the injunction, it is copulative. The sanction is, Either do this, or die: but the injunction is not, Either do this or that, but Do this and that too. See Mat 23:2-3 Eze 18:10-11 ; Eze 18:13 Jas 2:10 . Do everything, as well as anything: to leave one sin and not another, is, with Benhadad, to recover of one disease, and to die of another.
a Lex tota est una copulativa.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Deu 5:18
18 You shall not commit adultery.
Deu 5:18 adultery In the OT adultery (BDB 610, KB 658, Qal IMPERFECT) refers to only extra-marital sexual activities. This was a serious crime because of OT views of the afterlife. They believed that in some sense a person lived on through his seed. Also, the importance of tribes inheriting and passing on land allotted to them by YHWH made adultery a significant issue.
Notice, the first law is faithfulness to parents; the second law is faithfulness in not taking your brother’s life; the third idea is faithfulness within the home. Even betrothed women were treated as married (cf. Deu 22:23 ff. Mary was accused of unfaithfulness because she was betrothed to Joseph.
This idea of adultery is often used symbolically for idolatry. Ezekiel and Hosea analogously present God as a husband to Israel, therefore, when Israel went after other gods, it was called going a whoring and was considered spiritual adultery or faithlessness.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Exo 20:14, Pro 6:32, Pro 6:33, Mat 5:27, Mat 5:28, Luk 18:20, Jam 2:10, Jam 2:11
Reciprocal: Lev 18:20 – General Jer 5:8 – every one
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Deu 5:18. Neither shalt thou commit adultery If thou hast not been guilty of any act of uncleanness, hath thy heart conceived no unclean thought? Hast thou not looked on a woman so as to lust after her? Hast thou not betrayed thy own soul to temptation, by eating and drinking to the full, by needless familiarities, by foolish talking, by levity of dress or behaviour? Hast thou used all the means which Scripture and reason suggest, to prevent every kind and degree of unchastity? Hast thou laboured, by watching, fasting, and prayer, to possess thy vessel in sanctification and honour?
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The seventh commandment 5:18
This commandment deals with adultery only. Whereas murder violates life itself, adultery violates the most important and sacred human relationship, marriage. [Note: Merrill, Deuteronomy, p. 154.] God dealt with other forms of sexual sin elsewhere (cf. chs. 22-25). Adultery is the sexual union of a man and a woman when one or both of them is married to someone else. Adultery is an act, not a state, as is true of all the other prohibitions in the Ten Commandments (cf. Mat 5:27-28).
Adultery is wrong because it disrupts the basic unit of society, namely, the husband-wife relationship. God established marriage long before He gave the Mosaic Covenant, and He intended it to be a permanent relationship (Gen 2:24; Mat 19:3-8). A new relationship based on mutual commitment and a spiritual union comes into existence in marriage. Adultery violates that commitment and union and weakens the basis of the relationship. When adultery takes place the unfaithful partner temporarily abandons that commitment and future faithful commitment becomes uncertain. Thus the relationship is not what it was. Adultery erodes the foundation of marriage, which is faithfulness to a commitment (covenant) and a spiritual union before God. It does so by breaking that commitment and by establishing an intimate relationship, however temporary, with another partner (1Co 6:16). It also incurs God’s judgment. Under the Old Covenant the Israelites dealt with adulteresses more severely than adulterers. Under the New Covenant we should not execute adulteresses or adulterers. God has promised that He will deal with both (Heb 13:4; cf. 1Co 6:9-10). Adultery does not terminate a marriage in God’s sight, much less does it terminate one’s salvation. However it might eventually result in the termination of a marriage through divorce and remarriage.
How should a Christian respond to a spouse who has committed adultery? He or she should forgive the unfaithful mate (Joh 8:1-11). How often should we do this? How often has God forgiven you for being unfaithful to Him (cf. Mat 18:21-35)? Remember God’s instructions to Hosea concerning his unfaithful wife and how God used Hosea’s situation as an illustration of His own love for Israel (cf. Eze 23:37; Jas 4:4; Deu 5:2). Does not forgiveness encourage infidelity? Perhaps, but godly love forgives. God allows us to abuse His mercy, but appreciation for His love and grace will result in our wanting to remain faithful to Him. We should deal with one another as God deals with us, namely, graciously (Joh 13:34). If a spouse continues to be unfaithful it may become wise or necessary to separate (action), but there must be continuing forgiveness (attitude).
How can we guard against committing adultery? First, Scripture stresses the importance of guarding our own hearts, the seat of our affections (Mat 15:19; Pro 4:23; Pro 7:25). Second, we should realize that God has a claim on our bodies as well as our souls (1Co 6:13-20). Third, we should cultivate our relationship with our spouses (1Co 7:1-5). The husband-wife relationship is more fundamental than the parent child relationship. Husbands need to take the initiative in cultivating this relationship (Eph 5:25-31). [Note: See Gregory L. Jantz, Too Close to the Flame.]