Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 20:14

Thou shalt not commit adultery.

14. The seventh commandment. The purity of the married state to be maintained (cf. Gen 2:24 J). Cf. Lev 18:20 (H), Job 31:9-12, and Mat 5:27-32. For the penalty for adultery, see Lev 20:10 (H), Deu 22:22. In LXX. (B, and several cursives, both here and in Dt.), and the Nash papyrus, the seventh commandment comes before the sixth: the same order is found in Mar 10:19 (Text. Rec.), Luk 18:20, Rom 13:9, Jas 2:11, in Philo, and in many of the Fathers (Kn.).

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Exo 20:14

Thou shalt not commit adultery.

The Seventh Commandment

I. What it forbids.

1. Unchastity in thought and desire (Mat 5:28; Pro 6:18).

2. Unchastity in conversation (Eph 5:3-4).

3. Sensuality in all its forms and actions.

II. What it requires.

1. To avoid temptation, by carefully keeping the heart (Pro 4:23).

2. To cherish a regard for God and His will (Pro 5:21).

3. To keep the body pure as a temple of the Holy Ghost (1Co 6:17-18).

4. To seek lawful wedlock when chastity cannot otherwise be retained (1Co 7:2).

5. To honour the estate of matrimony (Heb 13:4).

III. Its penalties.

1. It consumes the body and destroys the soul (Pro 5:11; Pro 6:32).

2. It destroys a mans name and family (Pro 6:33).

3. It involves others in guilt.

4. It breaks down moral principles, and does violence to all the virtues.

5. It incurs the displeasure of God. He has denounced this sin in almost every book of the Bible.

6. It excludes from heaven, unless the sin be repented of and, by the help of God, forsaken (Eph 5:5).

7. It will be visited by condign punishment (Heb 13:4 with 10:31). (L. O. Thompson.)

The Seventh Commandment

The faithful observance of the matrimonial contract is guarded by this Commandment. Marriage holds both socially and morally a quite exceptional rank among contracts.

I. Glance for a moment at its social consequences, which are those that bulk most largely in the view of a civil legislator. No community can be more orderly, healthy, rich, or happy, than the sum of the families which compose it.

II. The moral aspects of marriage, however, are those which in this place deserve the most careful attention.

1. The law of marriage is a restraint upon the relations of the sexes which at first sight may appear arbitrary or conventional. It is less so than it looks. Monogamy is suggested by the proportion which exists between males and females in the population, and is found to be conducive both to individual well-being and to the growth of society. Manifestly, therefore, it has its roots in the nature of man himself, and is in harmony with the best conditions of his being. Still, it is a restraint; and a restraint imposed just where the animal nature of man is most pronounced and his personal passions are most head-strong. The limitations of the marriage-bond constitute only a single department (though an important one) of that old-fashioned and manly virtue called temperance, or the due control of oneself. It is a virtue which has to be learned in youth; and in learning it we need to bear in remembrance what St. Peter says, that the lusts of the flesh are the peculiar foes of the spiritual life; its incessant and its mortal foes: Beloved, I beseech you as sojourners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.

2. There is a second aspect of this law of marriage to which I must venture to invite your attention. I have said that it testifies to the need for restraint upon the physical appetites. It shows no less the extreme consequence of associating the strongest and most necessary of all appetites with a whole cluster of higher moral and social affections before it can be worthy of human beings. The union of true husband and wife in holy wedlock involves a crowd of complex elements, many of which touch the spiritual nature. It assumes a marriage of true minds; for that is not an ideal marriage which is not first a union of souls before the twain become one flesh. It reposes upon mutual esteem. It presupposes common tastes and establishes a most perfect system of common interests. It is, to begin with, a friendship, although the closest of all friendships. It leads to a noble dependence of weakness upon strength, and a chivalrous guardianship of strength over weakness. It asks for a self-renunciation on the part of each to the welfare of the other, which is the very perfection of disinterested love. It engages principle and honour to sustain mere inclination, and raises what would otherwise be the passion of an hour into a permanent devotion. By means of all this, the nobler social and moral emotions are enlisted in the service of love, so that there emerges that lofty ideal of chaste wedded affection in which lies the chief poetry of common lives. (J. O. Dykes, D. D.)

The Seventh Commandment

Leighton, in explaining this precept, says, I purpose not to reckon up particularly the several sorts and degrees of sin here forbidden, for chastity is a delicate, tender grace, and can scarcely endure the much naming of itself, far less of those things that are so contrary to it. If you would be freed from the danger and importunity of this evil, make use of these usual and very useful rules:

1. Be sober and temperate in diet: withdraw fuel.

2. Be modest and circumspect in your carriage. Guard your ears and eyes, and watch over all your deportment. Beware of undue and dangerous familiarities with any, upon what pretence soever.

3. Be choice in your society, for there is much in that.

4. In general flee all occasions and incentives to uncleanness. But the solid cure must begin within, otherwise all outward remedies will fail. Then,

(1) Seek a total entire change of heart and to find the sanctifying Spirit of grace within you.

(2) Labour to have the heart possessed with a deep apprehension of the holiness and purity of God, and then of His presence and eye upon all your actions and thoughts.

(3) Acquaint yourselves with spiritual enjoyments.

(4) Increase in the love of Christ. Alas! the misery which the sin here forbidden produces!

The Seventh Commandment

I. God forbids unfaithfulness towards husband or wife. Any previous step in course of infamy–any kind of incentive to impurity. Indecent conversation. Immodesty in dress. Evil thoughts.

II. Rules favourable to moral chastity.

1. Mortify any evil propensity.

2. Strengthen spirituality of mind.

3. Seek society and friendship of good and holy.

4. Fill up time with wholesome and right employment.

5. Observe temperance in all things–eating, sleeping, drinking. (W. B. Noel, M. A.)

The Seventh Commandment

I. The essential unity of man and woman.

1. Community. Woman is mans complement, his essential peer, his alter ego, his second self; constituting with him the genus mankind, or Homo.

2. Diversity. Man and woman are the two poles of the sphere of mankind–the one implying the other. Like the stars, they differ in their glory.

II. Marriage a Divine institution. A constituent elemental fact of humanity.

III. The marriage relation takes precedence, of every other human relation (Gen 2:24). None but the Lord who joins, can disjoin. Thou shalt not commit adultery. It is the Divine Lawgivers ordinance, guarding the chastity of marriage, the sanctity of home, the blessedness of the household, the preservation of society, the upbuilding of mankind. Let earths civic authorities, then, take exceeding care that they legislate and administer in this supreme matter of marriage according to the Divine oracle. Would God they all conceived it according to the standard and in the spirit of the Nazarine Teacher! And so we pass from the Seventh Commandment itself to the Divine Mans exposition of it (Mat 5:27-32). Here at least is freshness of moral statement, radiant in beauties of holiness, born from the morning, sparkling with the dew of perpetual youth. Our topic, I must sorrowfully add, is pertinent to our age and land. Loose notions touching marriage, divorce, re-marriage, are painfully, alarmingly prevalent. We need not go so far as Utah to find Mormons, theoretical and practical. Let it be thundered from the pulpit, from the academy, from the forum, that divorce (absolute divorce, allowing re-marriage), saving for one solitary cause, is a threefold crime–a crime against home, a crime against society, a crime against God. And now let us ponder the Divine Mans prescription for the cure of unchastity: If thy right eye causeth thee to stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: and if thy right hand causeth thee to stumble, cut it off, and cast it from thee. No; Christs asceticism is not asceticism for its own sake, but asceticism for the sake of the moral discipline and rectification of character. Enough that I simply remind you that whatever fosters or suggests unchaste desire or thought–whether it be painting or statuary, opera or dance, romance or song, ambiguous allusion or the figment of ones own imagination, as in the prophet Ezekiels vision of the chambers of imagery–it must be instantly, remorselessly, everlastingly renounced. (G. D. Boardman.)

The Seventh Commandment

I. The duties required.

1. The preservation of our own chastity and purity. There is a twofold chastity.

(1) In single life; when it is led in purity, it is like the angelical; when in impurity, it is devilish.

(2) There is conjugal chastity, when married persons keep themselves within the bounds of the law of that state. This lies in two things: (a) With respect to all others, keeping themselves pure and uncorrupted, (b) With respect to one another, keeping themselves within the bounds of Christian sobriety and moderation.

2. This command requires us to preserve the chastity of others, and that so far as we can, in their hearts, lips, and lives. Our duty in this point may be reduced to these two heads.

(1) That we may do nothing which may ensnare others. For whosoever lays the snare is partner in the sin that comes by it.

(2) That we do everything incumbent on us to preserve the chastity of others, in heart, speech, and behaviour. Let married persons live together in due love and affection to one another. Let each one be an example of purity to others. Let those whom ye see in danger be rescued by all means, whether by force or persuasion, as the circumstances require. And let none bring others guilt on their own heads, by being silent when they see the smoke, till the flame rise and discover itself. Let parents and masters do what they can to prevent the ruin of their children and servants, by rebuking any lightness about them, exhorting them, and praying for them; keeping them out of ill company, not suffering them to be idle or vague, and seasonably disposing of children in marriage.

II. The sins forbidden.

1. Uncleanness in heart, all speculative filthiness, unclean imaginations, thoughts, purposes, and affections, though people do not intend to pursue them to the gross act (Mat 5:28).

2. Uncleanness in words, all filthy communications and obscene language (Eph 4:29).

3. Uncleanness in actions. Besides the gross acts, there are others leading thereunto, which are there also forbidden. As,

(1) Wanton looks: there are eyes full of adultery (2Pe 2:14); wanton eyes (Isa 3:16).

(2) Impudent and light behaviour, and immodest gestures (Isa 3:16); indecent postures, contrary to religion and good manners.

(3) Luxurious embraces and dalliances. These are as smoke going before the flame, and were practised by the adulterous whore (Pro 7:13).

I shall next make some improvement of this subject.

1. Let those that have fallen into the sin of uncleanness, repent, and walk humbly all the days of their life under the sense of it.

2. Let those that stand take heed lest they fall. Labour to get your hearts possessed with a dread of this sin, and watch against it, especially ye that are young people, seeing it is a sin most incident to youth when the passions are most vigorous; which yet may stick fast with the blue marks of Gods displeasure upon you when you come to age. For motives, consider–

(1) It is not only a sin, but ordinarily, if not always a plague and punishment for other sins.

(2) It is a sin that very few ever get grace to repent of. It stupefies the conscience, and wastes all sense of sin from it (Hos 4:11).

(3) It dishonours and debases the body (1Co 6:18).

(4) It leaves an indelible stain upon their reputation; their honour is sunk, and there is no recovering of it (Pro 6:33).

(5) Poverty and want oft-times follow it. It natively tends to poverty (Pro 5:10), and there is a secret curse of that nature that often accompanies it (Pro 6:26).

(6) It is ruining to the soul (Pro 6:32). He that doth it–commit adultery with a woman–destroyeth his own soul. It ruins it here, in so far as it defiles the conscience, fetters the affections, blinds the mind, utterly unfits for communion with God, till the guilt be washed off by the application of Christs blood, after a frightful awakening of the conscience. And if they do not repent of this sin, it will destroy the soul for ever. Let these Scriptures imprint a horror of it on the minds of all (Heb 13:4; 1Co 6:9; Gal 5:19; Rev 21:8). (T. Boston, D. D.)

The Seventh Commandment

I. That which is here literally and expressly forbidden is–

1. That detestable and loathsome sin of adultery. There are two things in this sin of adultery that make it so exceeding heinous.

(1) The luxury and incontinency of it: in letting loose the reins to a brutish concupiscence; and yielding up the body to pollution and the soul to damnation.

(2) The injustice of it: being a deceit of the highest and most injurious nature that can be.

2. This Commandment forbids the uncleanness of fornication. Which, properly, is the sin committed betwixt two single persons. And, though it hath not some aggravations that belong to the other, yet it is an abominable sin in the sight of God (see 1Co 6:9-10; Rev 22:15; Gal 5:19; Col 3:5).

3. Here, likewise, are forbidden all incestuous mixtures; or uncleanness between those who are related to each other within the degrees of kindred specified (Lev 18:6-18).

4. Here is likewise forbidden polygamy, or a taking a wife to her sister; that is, to another (Lev 18:18).

5. Here also are forbidden all those monsters of unnatural lust, and those prodigies of villainy and filthiness, which are not fit to be named among men; but thought fit to be punished upon beasts themselves as ye may read (Lev 20:15-16; Lev 18:22-23).

6. All those things that may be incentives to lust and add fuel to this fire are likewise forbidden in this Command.

7. Because this law is spiritual, therefore it not only forbids the gross outward acts of filthiness but the inward uncleanness of the heart; all lustful contemplations, and ideas, and evil concupiscences.

II. The greatness and heinous nature of this sin appears–

1. In that it is a sin which murders two souls at once, and, therefore, the most uncharitable sin in the world.

2. This is the most degrading sin of all others.

3. This is a sin that doth, most of all ethers, obscure and extinguish the light of a mans natural reason and understanding.

4. This is a sin justly the most infamous and scandalous amongst men (Pro 6:32-33).

5. Consider, that this sin of uncleanness is a kind of sacrilege; a converting of that which is sacred and dedicated unto a profane use.

6. Consider, if all these things will not prevail, the dreadful punishment that God threatens to inflict upon all who are guilty of this sin. Yea, He speaks of it as a sin that He can hardly be persuaded to pardon; a sin that puzzles infinite mercy to forgive (Jer 5:7-9). And, indeed, God doth often, in this life, visit this sin: sometimes, by filling their loins with strange and loathsome diseases (Pro 6:26), sometimes, by reducing them to extreme beggary; for this sin, as Job speaks, is a fire that consumeth to destruction, and would root out all his increase. Yea, this very sin is so great a punishment for itself that the Wise Man tells us (Pro 22:14) that those whom God hates shall fall into it.

III. Let me now give you some cautionary rules and directions, by observing of which you may be preserved from it.

1. Be sure that you keep a narrow watch over your senses. For those are the sluices which, instead of letting in pleasant streams to refresh, do commonly let in nothing but mud to pollute the soul.

2. Addict thyself to sobriety and temperance; and, by these, beat down thy body and keep it in subjection to thy reason and religion.

3. Continually exercise thyself in some honest and lawful employment. Lust grows active when we grow idle.

4. Be earnest and frequent in prayer: and, if thou sometimes joinest fasting with thy prayers, they will be shot up to heaven with a cleaner strength. For this sin of uncleanness is one of those devils that goes not out but by fasting and prayer. God is a God of purity. Instantly beg of Him, that He would send down His pure and chaste Spirit into thy heart, to cleanse thy thoughts and thy affections from all unclean desires. (Bp. E. Hopkins.)

The Seventh Commandment

I. Something implied–that the ordinance of marriage should be observed; let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband, marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled. Marriage is a type and resemblance of the mystical union between Christ and His Church. Special duties belonging to marriage are love and fidelity.

1. Love. Love is the marriage of the affections.

2. Fidelity. Among the Romans, on the day of marriage, the woman presented to her husband fire and water: fire refines metal, water cleanseth; hereby signifying, that she would live with her husband in chastity and sincerity.

II. Something forbidden–the infecting ourselves with bodily pollution and uncleanness: thou shalt not commit adultery. The fountain of this sin is lust. Since the fall, holy love is degenerated to lust. Lust is the fever of the soul. There is a twofold adultery:

1. Mental; whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. As a man may die of an inward bleeding, so he may be damned for the inward boilings of lust, if they be not mortified.

2. Corporal adultery, when sin hath conceived, and brought forth in the act.

Wherein appears the heinousness of this sin of adultery?

1. In that adultery is the breach of the marriage oath.

2. The heinousness of adultery lies in this, that it is such a high dishonour done to God.

3. The heinousness of adultery lies in this, that it is committed with mature deliberation. First, there is the contriving the sin in the mind, then consent in the will, and then the sin is put forth in act. To sin against the light of nature, and to sin deliberately, is like the dye to the wool, it gives sin a tincture, and dyes it of a crimson colour.

4. That which makes adultery so heinous is, that it is a sin after remedy. God hath provided a remedy to prevent this sin; to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife. Therefore after this remedy prescribed, to be guilty of fornication or adultery, is inexcusable; it is like a rich thief, that steals when he hath no need. It is matter of lamentation to see this Commandment so slighted and violated among us. Now, that I may deter you from adultery, let me show you the great evil of it. First, it is a thievish sin. Adultery is the highest sort of theft; the adulterer steals from his neighbour that which is more than his goods and estate, he steals away his wife from him, who is flesh of his flesh. Secondly, adultery debaseth a person; it makes him resemble the beasts; therefore the adulterer is described like a horse neighing: every one neighed after his neighbours wife. Nay, this is worse than brutish; for some creatures that are void of reason, yet, by the instinct of nature, observe a kind of decorum of chastity. The turtle-dove is a chaste creature, and keeps to its mate; the stork, wherever he flies, comes into no nest but his own. Naturalists write, if a stork, leaving his own mate, joineth with any other, all the rest of the storks fall upon him and pull his feathers from him. Adultery is worse than brutish, it degrades a person of his honour. Thirdly, adultery doth pollute and befilthy a person. The body of a harlot is a walking dunghill, and her soul a lesser hell. Fourthly, adultery is destructive to the body. Uncleanness turns the body into a hospital, it wastes the radical moisture, rots the skull, eats the beauty of the face. As the flame wastes the candle, so the fire of lust consumes the bones. Fifthly, adultery is a purgatory to the purse: as it wastes the body, so the estate, by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread. Sixthly, adultery blots and eclipseth the name; whoso committeth adultery with a woman, a wound and dishonour shall he get, and his reproach shall not be wiped away. Some while they get wounds, get honour. The soldiers wounds are full of honour; the martyrs wounds for Christ are full of honour; these get honour while they get wounds: but the adulterer gets wounds in his name, but no honour: his reproach shall not be wiped away. Seventhly, this sin doth much eclipse the light of reason, it steals away the understanding, it stupefies the heart; whoredom takes away the heart. It eats out all heart for good. Solomon besotted himself with women, and they enticed him to idolatry. Eighthly, this sin of adultery ushers in temporal judgments. This sin, like a scorpion, carries a sting in the tail of it. The adultery of Paris and Helena, a beautiful strumpet, ended in the ruin of Troy, and was the death both of Paris and Helena. Jealousy is the rage of a man; and the adulterer is oft killed in the act of his sin. Ninthly, adultery, without repentance, damns the soul. How may we abstain from this sin of adultery? I shall lay down some directions, by way of antidote, to keep you from being infected with this sin.

1. Come not into the company of a whorish woman; avoid her house, as a seaman doth a rock; come not near the door of her house.

2. Look to yon eyes.

3. Look to your lips.

4. Look in a special manner to your heart.

5. Look to your attire. A wanton dress is a provocation to lust.

6. Take heed of evil company.

7. Beware of going to plays. A play-house is oft the preface to a whore-house.

8. Take heed of mixed dancing. Dances draw the heart to folly by wanton gestures, by unchaste touches, by lustful looks.

9. Take heed of lascivious books and pictures.

10. Take heed of excess in diet. The flesh pampered is apt to rebel.

11. Take heed of idleness. When a man is out of a calling, now he is fit to receive any temptation.

12. To avoid fornication and adultery let every man have a chaste, entire love to his own wife. It is not the having a wife, but the loving a wife makes a man live chastely. He who loves his wife, whom Solomon calls his fountain, will not go abroad to drink of muddy, poisoned waters.

13. Labour to get the fear of God into your hearts, by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil. As the banks keep out the water, so the fear of the Lord keeps out uncleanness. Such as want the fear of God, want the bridle that should check them from sin.

14. Set a delight in the Word of God. Let the Scriptures be my chaste delights. The reason why persons seek after unchaste, sinful pleasures is because they have no better. He that hath once tasted Christ in a promise, is ravished with delight; and how would he scorn a motion to sin!

15. If you would abstain from adultery, use serious consideration. Consider,

(1) God sees thee in the act of sin.

(2) Few that are entangled in the sin of adultery, recover out of the snare; none that go to her return again. Soft pleasures harden the heart.

(3) Consider what the Scripture saith, that it may lay a bar in the way to this sin, I will be a swift witness against adulterers.

(4) Consider the sad farewell this sin of adultery leaves: it leaves a hell in the conscience (Pro 5:3-4).

16. Pray against this sin. If the body must be kept pure from defilement, much more the soul of a Christian must be kept pure. (T. Watson.)

The law of chastity

I. The Law of chastity is that which regulates the intercourse of the sexes, whether in wedlock or other relations.

1. Marriage is the union of one man with one woman until death do them part.

(1) A mutual compact.

(2) A civil contract.

(3) A vital and spiritual union.

(4) A Divine institution.

2. The sacredness of the marriage contract as between one man and one woman was among the first things to be sullied by the fall, and through the lingering progress of many centuries has but slowly recovered.

II. The essential principle of this Law of chastity.

1. The man and the woman are the two halves of Gods image. Not the masculine qualities alone, but also the feminine; not mans strength alone and vigour, but also womans beauty and gentleness, are reflections of what, in the archetype, is found in God alone.

2. In this principle that the sexes are complemental to each other, together making one reflection of the image of God, we must learn that as a rule marriage is the appointed instrument for our highest moral development. When souls are wedded, when husband and wife alike are baptized into the Divine secret of utter self-abnegation, so that every drudgery is glorified, and every sacrifice made sweet, earth has no fairer picture of celestial joys.

III. The leading violations of the Law of chastity. (W. J. Woods, B. A.)

The scope of the Seventh Commandment

The Jewish tradition in the time of our Lord taught that it forbad simply the act of adultery. More, says Christ (Mat 5:27-28), it forbids all impure thoughts and desires. Let us be as practical as possible about guarding against the beginnings of this sin. We who are parents should guard against its beginning in our children. We all agree that ignorance is not the mother of devotion, and yet act as if ignorance was the mother of purity. Knowledge is the basis of true religion, and the safeguard of virtue. Our children will learn concerning the new-born passions which fire their imagination, either from impure companions or from you, and it is a matter of tremendous importance whether they learn purely or impurely. These new-born passions have a wise purpose in the will of God, and governed by His law they become the source of the purest and richest blessings. They are as Gods gift of fire to us. Controlled, it makes our firesides places of comfort and cheer; uncontrolled, it consumes our homes and leaves us miserable wanderers over a wintry waste. They are, like fire, excellent servants but terrible masters. It is well to know their nature and Gods law for their control. We will all do well, and especially the young, to cultivate taste for purity, so keen and sensitive that it will instinctively turn from the suggestion of impurity with loathing. We can do this in selecting our reading, and there is much need of it. There are many novels and poems of insinuating vice and suggestive impurity. It is wise to let our novel-reading be a very small proportion of the whole, simply for needed recreation, and then only the very best, of noble characters and heroic deeds; and our poetry, of fair ideals and beautiful scenes. We should cultivate the taste for purity in the choice of our companionship. Let our acquaintanceship even, as far as it is a matter of our choice, be of those whose delight is in pure thinking and feeling, in clean speaking and living; and let our friendship, which is altogether a matter of choice, be only with the pure. We strive to have in our gardens the most beautiful flowers, and the finest flavoured fruit, but we are careful to have no poison vine, however brilliant its colours, trail over the flowers, no poison berries, however tempting to the sight, hang side by side with the fruit. Let us take at least as good care of our minds and hearts as we do of our gardens. Now we may approach the subject of marriage. A high ideal of marriage is a great incentive to purity of heart. If young people anticipate a pure marriage, every step towards it must be in the way of virtue. If you wish to win a pure white soul for your lifelong companion, you will be unwilling to give less than you wish to receive. You will keep your own soul sweet and clean. (F. S. Schenck.)

Marriage

Marriage is a Divine institution founded in the nature of man as created by God. There is no higher mode of living for man and woman than to be husband and wife. It is the most intimate and sacred union that can exist on earth, to which all other relations are to give place. It is the union of one man and one woman for life, whose duties are not only to each other and to society, but to God. The legitimate power of the State is simply to enforce the law of God. If the State attempts to separate those whom God hath joined together, or to unite those whom God forbids to unite, her laws are nullities at the bar of conscience. Gods institution of marriage is the foundation of the family, and the family is the foundation of society, the State, and the Church. Rome rose by the sanctity of her family life, and fell when it was undermined, as any fabric however stately will fall when the foundation is removed. Her rise was through the courage of her men and the virtue of her women. The perpetual fire on the altar of the Temple of Vesta, tended by a chosen band of white-robed virgins, was a true symbol of her strength. But the days of degeneration came, and the fire flickered and went out. There were no divorces in the early years of her history. There were many easily obtained divorces in the years of her luxury. Mutual consent was all that was needed to break the tie. Now the Roman laws in their later laxness are at the basis of much of our (American) legislation, and have displaced the law of God. We should be aroused from indifference by her experience. Like cause will produce like effect. Beyond love of our country Christian sentiment should arouse in its strength, and impress Gods law of marriage upon the statute books of our States. It is enough to enshrine marriage in our regard, that it is ordained by God and governed by His law. Now all Gods laws are for the highest good of man, and hence we find many inestimable blessings flowing from marriage. It confers happiness upon the married. True, there are unhappy marriages. These who marry for property will be very apt to find the husband or wife an encumbrance. Those who marry heedlessly will find here as everywhere that heedlessness brings disaster. But the great majority of married people are happier for the marriage, as happy as their circumstances and character will allow. Poverty can never have the pleasures of wealth, but can have more pleasure in a loving marriage than in single loneliness. Love makes many a cottage happy. Covetousness can never have the pleasure of generosity, but in a loving marriage it finds dwarfing influences, and so becomes a smaller barrier to happiness. Selfishness in whatever form can never have real happiness, but true love in marriage tends to destroy selfishness. Marriage is Gods grand institution for cultivating love in human hearts. What would this sin-stricken world be without the affections of the family circle, the love of husband and wife, parents and children, brothers and sisters? What refining influences come into this world with a little child! How selfish and narrow and hard our hearts and lives would become were it not for Gods gift of children, awakening gratitude to Him, self-sacrificing love for them, and all the sweet sympathies and tender patient ministries of the home! What more helpless than a babe? God in marriage secures the might of love for its helplessness. What more ignorant? God secures teachers whose patience is well-nigh inexhaustible. Is there danger the child may become rough and selfish? In the required yielding to one another of brothers and sisters of different ages is found an antidote of selfishness, and the cultivation of gentle manners. Certainly the child will need government. The family is Gods place for cultivating obedience to law from the earliest hours of childhood. Submission to right authority is the spirit of a good child, of a good citizen, of a good Christian. Is there any wonder, then, that God guards this blessed institution of marriage against all that would pollute and destroy it? If the frequency and earnestness of the warnings of the Holy Scripture against any sin measure the tendency of man to commit that sin, then impurity is one of the most fearfully prevalent and dreadful sins of the race; and so the history of the past and of to-day plainly teaches. Our laws are lax here too. They do not regard adultery and its hideous kindred as crimes. To steal ten dollars sends a man to prison. To steal happiness and honour only gives a right to sue for damages. And has society, the State, no interest in such things? Surely adultery is a crime. However silent our laws may be, let us never forget that God is not silent. The Bible does not whisper, it thunders peal on peal the hot denunciations of Divine wrath against the adulterer. Marriage is further ennobled in our thought since God has chosen this most intimate and sacred union to illustrate the union between Christ and His Church. On the plains of Northern Italy there stands an ancient and beautiful city. Near its centre rises a building of pure white marble, wonderful for its grandeur and beauty, seeming more like a dream from heaven than a creation of the earth. As one stands upon the roof of this cathedral of Milan, surrounded by the multitude of its dazzling pinnacles and spires, he may look far off to the north, over the plains and hills, until his eye rests upon the snowclad summits of the Alps, those other pinnacles and spires which God Himself created, and clothed with the ever pure white garments of the skies. So, from this purest of earths relationships, we lift our thoughts to the mystical union of life and love, between the heaven and the earth, the marriage of the Church to her Divine Lord. Who shall speak of the love and faithfulness of this Divine Bridegroom, the love which knows no changing, which led Him to lay down His life for His Church? How steadily and warmly should her love go out to Him! (F. S. Schenck.)

Purity outward and inward

Sir Edward Coke was very neat in his dress, and it was one of his sentiments, that the cleanness of a mans clothes ought to put him in mind of keeping all clean within.

Value of purity

A Greek maid, being asked what fortune she would bring her husband, answered: I will bring him what is more valuable than any treasure–a heart unspotted, a virtue without a stain, which is all that descended to me from my parents. No woman could have a more valuable dowry!

The power of passion

One bright July morning I was driving to town. As I came to the top of the hill just above the bridge, on the outskirts of the place, a little boy, from a cottage on the north side of the road, fired off a small cannon. He was so near the road, the cannon made so great a noise, and the whole thing came so unexpectedly, that my little bay pony took fright, and shied, with a spring, to the other side of the road. He not only overturned the carriage in doing so, but was with great difficulty reined in and prevented from running away. You should not fire your cannon so near the road, said I to the boy; you frightened my horse badly, and nearly made him run away. I didnt mean to do it, said he, but it got agoing before I saw the horse, and then I couldnt stop it. I said no more, but drove on, thinking of the boys answer, as I have often thought of it since, though all this happened years ago. Couldnt stop it. How often, when we start lust, there is no stopping. Do not begin, and the difficulty will not arise–it will not get a-going.

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT

Against adultery and uncleanness.

Verse 14. Thou shalt not commit adultery.] Adultery, as defined by our laws, is of two kinds; double, when between two married persons; single, when one of the parties is married, the other single. One principal part of the criminality of adultery consists in its injustice.

1. It robs a man of his right by taking from him the affection of his wife.

2. It does him a wrong by fathering on him and obliging him to maintain as his own a spurious offspring – a child which is not his. The act itself, and every thing leading to the act, is prohibited by this commandment; for our Lord says, Even he who looks on a woman to lust after her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart. And not only adultery (the unlawful commerce between two married persons) is forbidden here, but also fornication and all kinds of mental and sensual uncleanness. All impure books, songs, paintings, c., which tend to inflame and debauch the mind, are against this law, as well as another species of impurity, for the account of which the reader is referred to See Clarke on Gen 38:30.

That fornication was included under this command we may gather from St. Matthew, Mt 15:19, where our Saviour expresses the sense of the different commandments by a word for each, and mentions them in the order in which they stand; but when he comes to the seventh he uses two words, , to express its meaning, and then goes on to the eighth, c. thus evidently showing that fornication was understood to be comprehended under the command, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” As to the word adultery, adulterium, it has probably been derived from the words ad alterius torum, to another’s bed; for it is going to the bed of another man that constitutes the act and the crime. Adultery often means idolatry in the worship of God.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Here is mentioned one kind of uncleanness, as being eminently sinful, and unjust, and pernicious to human society. But under this are comprehended and forbidden all other kinds of filthiness, as bestiality, sodomy, whoredom, fornication, &c., and all means, occasions, and appearances of them; as it appears,

1. From other scriptures that forbid those things, which either belong to this command, or to none of the ten, which is very improbable.

2. From the large extent of the other commands, noted before.

3. From our Saviours explication, Mat 5:27. And contrariwise, all chastity and sobriety in thoughts, affections, words, habits, and gestures, is here prescribed. See 1Th 4:3,4; Heb 13:4.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

Thou shall not commit adultery,] Which, strictly speaking, is only that sin which is committed with another man’s wife, as Jarchi observes; but Aben Ezra thinks the word here used signifies the same as another more commonly used for whoredom and fornication; and no doubt but fornication is here included, which, though it was not reckoned a crime among some Heathens, is within the reach of this law, and forbidden by it, it being an impure action, and against a man’s body, as the apostle says, 1Co 6:18 as well as sins of a more enormous kind, as unnatural lusts and copulations, such as incest, sodomy, bestiality, c. and even all unchaste thoughts, desires, and affections, obscene words, and impure motions and gestures of the body, and whatever is in itself unclean or tends to uncleanness as it also requires that we should, as much as in us lies, do all we can to preserve our chastity, and the chastity of others, pure and inviolate, see Mt 5:28, this is the seventh commandment.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Although one kind of impurity is alone referred to, it is sufficiently plain, from the principle laid down, that believers are generally exhorted to chastity; for, if the Law be a perfect rule of holy living, it would be more than absurd to give a license for fornication, adultery alone being excepted. Furthermore, it is incontrovertible that God will by no means approve or excuse before this tribunal, what the common sense of mankind declares to be obscene; for, although lewdness has everywhere been rampant in every age, still the opinion could never be utterly extinguished, that fornication is a scandal and a sin. Unquestionably what Paul teaches has been prevalently received from the beginning, that a good life consists of three parts, soberness, righteousness, and godliness, ( Titus 2:12;) and the soberness which he commands differs not from chastity. Besides, when Christ or the Apostles are treating of a perfect life, they always refer believers to the Law; for, as it had been said of old by Moses, “This is the way, walk ye in it;” (59) Christ confirms this,

“

If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments,” (Mat 19:17😉

and Paul corroborates it, “He that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law,” (Rom 13:8,) whilst they constantly pronounce a curse against all fornicators. It is not worth while to quote the particular passages in which they do so. Now, if Christ and the Apostles, who are the best interpreters of the Law, declare that God’s Law is violated no less by fornication than by theft, we assuredly infer, that in this Commandment the whole genus is comprehended under a single species. Wherefore, those have done nothing but betray their disgraceful ignorance, who have sought to be praised for their acuteness on the score of their ridiculous subtlety, when they admitted that fornication is indeed condemned with sufficient clearness and frequency in the New Testament, but not in the Law. For, if they had reasoned justly, inasmuch as God is declared to have blessed marriage, it must at once be concluded, on the contrary, that the connection of male and female, except in marriage, is accursed. This is the argument of the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, where he contrasts two opposite things;

“

Marriage (he says) is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled; but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.” (Heb 13:4.)

So also, when God forbids the priest to marry a harlot, ( Lev 21:14,) the manifest impropriety of fornication is declared; and, if it was unlawful for the daughters of Israel to be harlots, ( Deu 23:17,) the same reasoning applies necessarily to males. Nor has Hosea taken that reproof from anywhere else but the Law? “Whoredom and wine take away the heart.” ( Hos 4:11.) Thus, when the Prophets metaphorically condemn the corruptions of their nation, they do not always use the same; word as Moses here does, נפ, naaph, but compare them to fornications, whereas, if fornication were lawful in itself, this metaphor would be altogether inappropriate. Hosea was commanded to take a harlot for a wife, ( Hos 1:2😉 no mention is made of adultery, and still the shame and baseness of the people is thus condemned. Who, then, would say that fornication is free from sin, since God brands it with no ordinary mark of ignominy? But if any should pertinaciously contest this, let him accuse Paul of error, who bears witness that an example is set before us in the Law, that we should. not “commit fornication as some of them committed, and fell in one day three-and-twenty thousand.” ( Num 25:9; 1Co 10:8.) Surely, if they had not transgressed the Law, so horrible a vengeance would not have overwhelmed them. If any should object that the crime of idolatry was mixed up with it., still the declaration of Paul remains untouched, that God was the avenger of fornication in this infliction of punishment, which would not accord, unless it were a transgression of the Law. And in truth, where, as recorded by Luke, ( Act 15:20,) the Apostles in their decree prohibit fornication amongst the Gentiles, the reason is at the same time added, that “Moses is read in the synagogues.” Now, if it were not a vice opposed to the Law, no offense would have hence arisen.

We have already explained why, under this word adultery, every impure lust was condemned. We know how unbridled was the licentiousness of the Gentiles; for, although God never suffered all shame to be extinguished together with their purity, still respect for what was right was in a manner stifled, so that they evaded the grossness of the sin by ribaldry and scurrilous jests. At any rate, the doctrine of Paul was by no means understood, that those who indulge in whoredom “sin against their own body.” (1Co 6:18.)

Since, then, the minds of all men were stupified by indulgence, it was needful to arouse them by declaring the atrocity of the sin, that they might learn to beware of all pollution. Nor are unbridled lusts only here condemned, but God instructs His people to cherish modesty and chastity. The sum is, that those who desire to approve themselves to God, should be pure “from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit,” (2Co 7:1😉 nor can we doubt but that Paul in these words would interpret the law, as he elsewhere exhorts,

“

that everyone should possess his vessel in sanctification and honor; not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God.” (1Th 4:4.)

(59) The quotation is not from the writings of Moses, but an accommodation from Isa 30:21.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT VERSUS ADULTERY

Exo 20:14

WE come, this evening, in our series upon the Ten Commandments to the consideration of the seventhThou shalt not commit adultery; and our theme is one that requires on the one side such a clear and candid presentation of the truth as to impress man with its Divine meaning and lessons; and on the other side such a phrasing of thought as to give little satisfaction to prurient curiosity, and no offence to the righteously sensitive.

I am perfectly aware that these two things are the Cylla and Carybdis upon either one of which a man may run his speech aground and wreck it. Between them there is not only fair sailing, but a territory that ought to be traversed more often by the men who are set of God to pilot their fellows.

Two or three considerations urge to a candid consideration of this text.

First, it compasses one of the commandments. It was spoken by God, and

all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. (2Ti 3:16).

Second, the social vice against which this text sets itself is not only a growing one, but the particular vice that results in the worst conceivable moral gangrene.

Again, if the minister of Jesus Christ shall not cry aloud against sin, sparing not, how shall the people be saved therefrom?

It is one of the arts of Satan, which he has long played to his profit, to keep Gods spokesman silent about the sins which modern modesty (?) says should be unnamed, but against which God thundered His holy Law: for Satan understands perfectly what Solomon long ago wrote, Where there is no vision the people perish; but he that keepeth the law, happy is he (Pro 29:18).

Henry Van Dyke says, A Bible was once published in which, by a typographical error, the not was omitted from the seventh commandment. It was called the wicked Bible. But what is the value of Gods Word upon this or any other subject, so long as good people and even preachers look upon the company of those who stand like Beckfords inhabitants of the hall of Eblis, every one with his hand over the fire in his bosom, and yet like his supposedly faithful friend, are pledged not to speak of it.

I believe there is more in the seventh commandment than a mere injunction against the sin to which it refers. I think with Dr. Boardman that it is the Divine Law Givers ordinance guarding the chastity of marriage, the sanctity of home, the blessedness of the household, the preservation of society, the upbuilding of mankind, and because I so think, I purpose the plain talk of the evening.

The first thing of which I make mention is

THE POWER OF THIS INIQUITY

Of course it is commonly understood that a disregard of the seventh commandment is a mighty power for the degradation of the individual, the down-pulling of society, the undermining of the state, and an overturning of the work of the Church of God. But when I refer to the power of this iniquity, I mean some other things as well.

First, it stands in the strength of centuries of evil custom.

As we look back into history, one of the blackest lines that disfigure the pages that the centuries have turned is the one that lust has left upon them.

Canon Wilber-force says, Augustine is probably the originator of the theory that some fearful form of this sin necessitated the deluge; the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the extirpation of the Canaanites were the direct consequences of this vice. The traditions of heathen mythology, the still-existing frescoes on the walls of Pompeii, and the locked room filled with obscene statuary in the museum at Naples, indicate the existence of this evil among the ancient civilizations. The worship of Baal and Ashtaroth * * patronized by Jezebel, the Sidonian queen, was accompanied by the wildest sensual license which Elijah, the Tishbite, was raised up by Jehovah to rebuke; and it was the same vice in the kings palace that Elijahs great antitype, John the Baptist, so fearlessly challenged and condemned.

What has been termed the self-repeating action of humanity has carried on the inheritance to our own time, and we find ourselves confronted with a grievous manifestation of the old evil.

Then, after having called attention to the fact that so-called high circles are almost as stained by this sin as are those who dwell among the haunts of squalor and misery, Wilber-force adds, What blindness then can be imagined, more suicidal than the conspiracy of silence which would cast a veil over evil influences destructive to the welfare of a people?

It was reported in Chicago during the Worlds Fair year, 1893, and was commonly believed by the most devout Christian men and women of that city those who were carrying the Gospel to the outcaststhat 40,000 fallen women were added to the number already resident, and that this entire army of social lepers found a living in those days of increased population by plying their terrible trade.

When one remembers the history of Babylon, the down-going of Greece, the out-rotting of Rome, he is a poor patriot indeed if he can see the same sin that sapped those cities from finial to foundation stone, and sent them to the Gehenna of Gods wrath, and yet be silent at the sight of this same cancer, fastening itself upon his own nation for its demoralization, decrepitude, and decay!

We read in the Word that righteousness exalteth a nation, and we ought not to forget what God said to Israel touching this sin, Thou canst not stand before thy enemies until ye put away the accursed sin from amongst you.

Again, the unparalleled growth of cities is proving a mighty impetus to this iniquity.

Civic conditions foster every sin. Solitude has been commonly regarded as a great shield against many temptations, while it is perfectly well known that the multitude makes for immorality, because in the multitude immorality can hide itself.

The young woman brought up in the small town, having been led astray, speedily takes her departure for the great metropolis. It may be only a little way from home she goes, but she knows that in the great city she will be almost as if she had taken to the heart of Africa. And if the loss were all, unspeakably sad as is that, still when the life came to an end, the ground would give a grave, and indifferent society would sweep on. But every such a wrecked one becomes a tempter in turn to draw others from their moorings, and drown them in immoralities.

I think all those who know me will bear witness to my intense hatred of the saloon. I believe it was the parent of a great, viperous brood of iniquities; and yet, as I used to walk the streets of Chicago, where there were 7,000 licensed saloons and possibly as many more dealing in the deadly drug without license, it still seemed to me that the city was in greater danger from the social virus of disregarding the seventh commandment. For defilement of body, derangement of mind, degradation of morals, destruction of society, the sin that used to head up on Clark Street and Custom House Place, just as it heads up in certain sections of other cities, but spreads itself to the uttermost limits of city life, was indeed a great, if not the greatest of all civic dangers.

When that wonderful man, W. T. Stead, wrote If Christ Came to Chicago, after having argued the dangers from this source, quoted most effectively the couplet,

The harlots cry from street to street

May prove the citys winding sheet.

I do not propose tonight to enter upon any publication of the facts which students of sociology have expressed in figures. To do that might bring suspicion into sinless minds, and sorrow to mothers and sisters which might express itself in weeping, but still could not work reform.

We know what facts the physical examinations in connection with our late world war brought out thousands of men diseased and unfit. Such a note might well make the young men of our cities pause for a moments thought. Liquor, the cigarette, too much amusement, and the hidden vices, are making havoc with the physical manhood of all our towns and cities. Oh, the power of the iniquity against which our text is hurled!

The second thing to which I call attention is the

PERPETUATION OF THIS INIQUITY

Satan knows how to employ all possible agencies to this end. He makes those which are rightful in themselves do his evil bidding when once he can subject them to his will.

Perhaps the first that he employs is natural passion. It belongs to the fallen estate of man that he is not always in control of himself, but yields to temptations that arise from within. Personally, I do not believe that the Book of God teaches that these dispositions to wrong are innate, but rather implanted. They rise out of the heart, it is true, for Christ so taught, saying, For from within, out of the heart of man, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, etc. (Mar 7:21, f.).

But the difficulty is that Satan has already carried the citadel of the heart; having entered in himself, he is able to make suggestion.

Do you recall that in Goethes Confessions of a Beautiful Soul, there is a statement that goes to the very root of this problem of passion. It is this: For more than a year I was forced to feel that if an unseen hand had not protected me, I might have become a Girard, a Cartouche, a Damiens, or almost any immoral monster that one could name. I felt the predisposition to it in my heart. God! What a discovery!

But it is better to make the discovery and guard the fact that lower passions exist, and that they must be put under the foot of a redeemed will or else those in possession of them will live in a daily danger of destruction.

It is related that when the old line battleship, Dougal, lying on Portsmouth mud, was overhauled after being fifteen years off commission, they found in her a live shell with fuse attached, which, under the pressure of a childs foot, or the gnawing of a rats tooth, might at any moment have blown her to atoms; and when we remember that every life is characterized by powers that under certain evil touches may bring us to destruction, we do well indeed to remember the inspired injunction, Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fair; and also to copy Pauls conduct and keep under the body and bring it into subjection.

Again, womans wealth of affection is often made the secret of her temptation.

A little tract referred to by Dr. Kerr Tupper, when some time since he was speaking on this subject, says, Very often when a woman falls, she falls because of something best in herher longing to give her best and love her best; she flings herself at the feet of him who tramples her into the mire, and laughs at his dreadful work, and while it is always dangerous to speak a word that seems by implication even to condone sin, I have no doubt of the truth of this claim.

But what folly for the confiding to suppose that there is the proof of love in parting with that which woman should hold dearest, or that there is occasion for love when such a sacrifice is acceptable to him to whom it is offered. If one consulted Reason, or was guided by Revelation, she ought not to expect other than maltreatment from the man who willingly accepts such sacrifice, for he who holds you dear will under all circumstances conserve the greatest interests of your life, and guard them more jealously than he guards his own. And if, under any circumstances, your professed friend turns tempter, make up your mind in advance that a surrender of your own conscience can only result in the shame of sin, and such sorrow as only Satan can impose.

It availed little to one that she was tempted to offer all in proof of her love, when afterward, finding herself deceived, degraded, and ready to die, she wrote just before she breathed her last in a wretched garret, some stanzas, a part of which reads like this:

Once I was pure as the snow, but I fell,

Fell, like the snow-flake, from Heaven to Hell,

Fell to be trampled as filth on the street,

Fell to be scoffed at, to be spit on and beat,

Bleeding, cursing, dreading to die,

Selling my soul to whoever would buy;

Dealing in shame for a morsel of bread,

Hating the living and fearing the dead,

Merciful God, have I fallen so low,

And yet, I was once like the beautiful snow.

Again, unquestionably this iniquity is perpetuated by the poverty of present-day salaries.

I am not sorry that woman has some privileges in the modern mart. I am saddened in the extreme that she has accepted her place there at wages that often look either to starvation or sin.

In that same sermon to which I made reference a moment ago, the speaker said, I feel deeply on this subject tonight, because of a little article which I read yesterday. It was an appeal by a young woman in behalf of young women, and in the appeal occurred these words, Has it ever occurred to you, reader, that many of those whom you look down upon today as poor, degraded, wretched creatures, were, when they fell, very young and powerless? that pretty girl in the store that has been working six or eight hours, who walks out in the evening to get a fresh whiff of air; that servant girl on her errand; that seamstress that is working against starvation on miserable wages. I confess that to me this last was the most potent appeal, and when I recall that many of our great stores today are paying to the girls that put in full hours, such poor wages as puts them within the power of the most evil-minded, I am not only ashamed of the sex to which I belong, and mortified by the customs of modern merchandizing, but I am made afraid for the future.

And again, shall we merely mention to execrate him, the man who makes the downfall of others his social profession.

I am sorry to call him a manbrute and beast insteadwho cares to boast his success in sinking souls. For such a man I am compelled to feel as Henry Ward Beecher expressed himself, when he said, Oh, Prince of Torment, if thou hast transforming power, give some relief to this once innocent child whom another has corrupted! Let thy deepest damnation seize him who brought her hither. Let his coronation be upon the very mount of torment, and the rain of fiery hail be his salutation. He shall be crowed by thorns, poisoned and anguish bearing, and every woe shall beat upon him, and every wave of Hell roll over the first risings of baffled hope. If Satan has one dart more poisoned than another, if there be one hideous spirit more unrelenting than others, they shall be thine, most execrable wretch, who led her to forsake the guide of youth and to forget the covenant of her God.

And be it understood that for such an one, Satan cannot finish the judgment, for God has already declared that He will shut him out of Heaven and give him a place in a lake of fire that burneth forever.

A few words touching

SOME PREVENTATIVES OF THIS SIN

First, take care of the heart. Out of the heart are the issues of life. Out of the heart of man proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, etc. Jesus Christ said a very searching thing when He declared,

Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery, but I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery already with her in his heart; and if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee, for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into heir (Mat 5:27-29).

We do not forget that when that noble man, Archbishop Cranmer, was at the stake being martyred in the reign of the Bloody Mary, upon remembering that in a weak moment his right hand had signed the dogmas of the papal supremacy, he thrust that right hand steadily into the flames and held it there until it was burned to the bone, saying, This unworthy hand hath offended.

We cannot justify his act because if there had been sin, that sin originated in the heart before it was expressed by the hand; and the member which needs to be thrust into the white light of Gods truth and purged and purified is the heart of man.

Again, we must jealously guard the home. If any one institution has been a savor of life unto life of human society, it is the home; and that home can only be conserved by the strictest keeping of the seventh commandment.

It is a dark day when any member of the house disregards it, for it is a day when the home is effectually and permanently undermined. There may be other sins in the home, and yet the house be worthy of the name, but when this sin enters, the term can never properly be applied again.

The man and woman may live together; the brother and sister may dwell under the same roof, but the home is destroyed. There is no such thing as husband and as wife, and brother and sisters are misnomers. Well has Dr. Talmage said, that where there is no pure home, there are Vandals, and the Goths of Europe, the Numidians of Africa, and the Nomads of Asiano home, no family, no church. But when you have kept the heart, and have kept the home, you have not done enough.

You must guard the mind. I believe today that the books published and put before our unsuspecting youth, are too many of them calculated to undermine character, exalt lust, and discourage virtue. I never think of low art and vile books without remembering a story told by Dr. Dixon of how a man in a European library put up his hand to take a book from a shelf, and felt a prick in his finger. Soon it was so swollen and painful that he went back to see upon what he had touched it; and lo, they found a small but deadly serpent coiled upon a shelf among the books.

And I tell you that today some of the books that have had the largest public patronage in years past have also had the largest conceivable evil effects, and many a young man, and many a young woman is poisoned in mind, soiled in heart, and smirched in character in consequence of their reading.

A few words upon the

POSSIBLE SALVATION FROM THIS SIN

and I am done.

I plead for equal ostracism for each sex. There is no defense of that conduct which has characterized society, leading it to blame and put the woman who transgresses the seventh commandment, under bane, while condoning and receiving into first circles the greater sinnerher paramour.

If there is one thing for which my sisters are responsible, and concerning which I cry for shame, it is the distinction they have made at this point, refusing to associate with the fallen of their own sex, and giving cordial reception to the fallen of the opposite sex. I am among those who believe that man and woman should stand upon a common social level, and should be guided by a common standard of social ethics.

Charles Wesley said of the creation of Eve:

Not from his head he woman took

As made her husband to oerlook;

Not from his feet as one designed

The foot-stool of the stronger kind.

But fashioned for himself a bride

An equal taken from his side.

And I plead for that equality in judgment as surely as in mercy; in ethics as surely as in domestics. There is no law of God, no not even a word in all the revelation of His will, that can ever be made to approve the distinctions that have existed in the judgments pronounced against men and women who have alike disregarded the seventh commandment. The New York Graphic has written:

To the home of the father returning,

The prodigal weary and worn,

Is greeted with joy and thanksgiving,

As when on his first natal mom.

A robe and a ring are his portion;

The servants as suppliants bow;

He is clad in fine linen and purple

In return for his penitent vow.

But, ah for the prodigal daughter,

Who is wandering away from home,

Her feet must still press the dark valley

And through the wild wilderness roam.

Alone on the bleak, barren mountains,

The mountains so dreary and cold,

No hand is outstretched in fond pity,

To welcome her back to the fold.

But thanks to the Shepherd, whose mercy,

Still follows the sheep, though they stray,

The weakest and een the forsaken,

He bears in His bosom away;

And in the bright mansions of Glory,

Which the Blood of His sacrifice won

There is room for the prodigal daughter,

As well as the prodigal son,

The second step toward salvation from this sin is a whole Gospel for society. It is the light that can alone make immorality a shame, and it is the light that can alone show the sinner how to be rid of his scarlet.

It is high time that men took the velvet out of their mouths and revoiced Gods law entire.

I was reading many days since a book in which the author said, One reason why certain sins are making such strides today, is that preachers have ceased to publish the Law of God. I wish that we had more watchmen upon the walls of Zion who should never hold their peace, day or night; men, who like W. T. Stead, would be willing to go to prison for six months in order to save the inexperienced, tempted, and ruined among the young, by laying bare the facts of immorality and letting in upon them the flood of light of Gods Word.

But last and best of all is to preach purity by the power of Jesus Christ.

When He was in the world, and harlots came to Him, He forgave their sins and sent them away, saying, Go and sin no more, or else allowed them to become His followers, and proved Himself their ever faithful Friend.

He is the same today, and whilst I have spoken so strongly tonight as to lead some to feel that God has only fiery indignation for this sin, I want so to speak as to have all see that God has only love for the sinner, and is crying, Come now and let us reason together: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow: though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

I believe that the seventh commandment covers one of the sins that stain the deepest; but I also believe that Gods salvation is adequate to even this. Go talk with Mother Prindle, and let her tell you the story of many of those upon whose pitiful state God has had mercy; to whom He has spoken His pardon; for it is a fact that of all men, no matter what are their sins, God stands ready to save. He says, Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.

But may I tell you, young men and women, tonight accept Christ as Saviour from all sin, and He will keep you from the dreadful transgressions to which this discourse has been directed. Commit yourself to Him and know that, with the Apostle, He is able to keep that which you have committed unto the day of judgment, and though you may live for many years in an evil society with temptations on every side, you may pass through it unsullied and unstained.

Wilbur-force says, There is a tiny aquatic insect that possesses the capacity for gathering around itself a bubble of air, incased in which, as in a crystal vesture, it can plunge into the foulest water and traverse the muddiest bottom unsoiled.

It is a parallel with the believer abiding in Jesus; hidden in Him with every thought brought into captivity to Him; living in His presence; the Christian is safe and can walk unharmed through the worlds wickedness.

Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Exo. 20:14

THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT

Among the various, the innumerable proofs, which God has given of His perfect goodness, the institution of marriage is one of the most beneficent; and it shows especially and abundantly His goodness to fallen man. Those who have not entered this endeared relation, feel in the midst of the world a solitude of the heart. In this relationship there is every circumstance calculated to promote human happiness. Other relationships are often interrupted and broken in upon by opposite interests; but, through the goodness of God, the interests of man and wife are one. Other relations are often separated by the circumstances of life; but a husband and his wife are united for ever. Yet man is so perverse and foolish that he will cast aside this happiness. An adulterous man breaks many vows, and destroys the happiness of an entire family.

I. In this command, God has forbidden unfaithfulness towards a husband or towards a wife; having attached to it, both under the law and the Gospel, the most fearful penalties. Then the adulterer and the adulteress were to be put to death. Now we are told that adulterers shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But this commandment forbids any previous step in a course of infamy,any kind of incentive to impurity is forbidden by the pure morality of the Gospel. Indecent conversation. Immodesty in dress. All evil thoughts.

II. Rules favourable to moral chastity.

1. To mortify any evil propensity. We are commanded by the Word of God to put to death any corrupt inclination.

2. We must endeavour to strengthen the spirituality of our minds. If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God; set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

3. Seek the society and the friendship of those who are themselves good and holy. If a person loves the good he has a natural distaste for the society of the abandoned and the wicked. Just in proportion as virtuous affections obtain the dominion in our hearts, vicious passions are subdued.

4. Fill up lime with wholesome and right employments. Even those that are not in themselves of a high and elevating character, but are the lowest kind of duty to which any man can be called, have this excellent effect; they are calculated to occupy the thoughts, to interest the mind, and to prevent the thoughts becoming vagrant after that which is in itself corrupt.

5. Observe the rules of temperance in all things, in eating, sleeping, and drinking. We owe a duty to society at large. We must secure our personal purity and lessen the amount of vice found in the world. Society ought to frown upon vice. No government ought to employ an avowed libertine. The public journals ought to brand him with infamy.W. B. Noel, M.A.

ILLUSTRATIONS

BY
THE REV. WILLIAM ADAMSON

Passion-Power! Exo. 20:14. One bright July morning, I was driving to town. As I came to the top of the hill just above the bridge, on the outskirts of the place, a little boy, from a cottage on the north side of the road, fired off a small cannon. He was so near the road, the cannon made so big a noise, and the whole thing came so unexpectedly, that my little bay pony took fright, and shied, with a spring, to the other side of the road. He not only overturned the carriage in doing so, but was with great difficulty reined in and prevented from running away. You should not fire your cannon so near the road, said I to the boy, after I had got the pony somewhat quiet; you frightened my horse badly, and nearly made him run away. I didnt mean to do it, said he, but it got agoing before I saw the horse, and then I couldnt stop it. I said no more, but drove on, thinking of the boys answer, as I have often thought of it since, though all this happened years ago. Couldnt stop it! How often, when we start lust, there is no stopping. Do not begin, and the difficulty will not arise It will not get agoing.

But if once we let them reign,
They sweep with desolating train,
Till they but leave a hated name,
A ruined soul, a blackened fame.

Cook.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

(14) Thou shalt not commit adultery.Next to the duty of respecting a mans life is placed that of respecting his domestic peace and honour. Adultery is an invasion of the household, a destruction of the bond which unites the family, a dissolution of that contract which is the main basis of social order. It was forbidden by all civilised communities, and in uncivilised ones frequently punished with death. The Mosaic enactments on the subject are peculiar chiefly in the absolute equality on which they place the man and the woman. Adulterers are as hateful as adulteresses, and are as surely to be put to death (Lev. 20:10; Deu. 22:22-24, &c.). The man who acts treacherously against the wife of his covenant is as great a sinner as the woman who breaks the marriage bond (Mal. 2:14-16). There is no respect of persons and no respect of sexes with God.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT, Exo 20:14.

14. Thou shalt not commit adultery Next to the criminal blood-guiltiness of him who assaults God’s image by destroying human life is that of him or her who violates the sacredness of the marriage bond. He who created man in his own image created them male and female, (Gen 1:27,) and declared that a man and his wife should be regarded as one flesh . Gen 2:24. Comp . Mat 19:3-9; Mar 10:2-12. Weighty and suggestive, also, are the apostle’s words upon this sacred relation, in Eph 5:23-33. A sound scriptural view of the sacredness of the marriage relation exhibits the essential criminality of bigamy and polygamy . Although these abominable evils forced themselves into the domestic life of patriarchs and other distinguished men of Old Testament times, the law of God and nature has ever frowned upon them, and pursued them with a curse . Our Lord showed clearly, in the passage above cited, that these sins had been tolerated because of the people’s perversity, and in spite of the original law and commandment. He not only re-announced the ancient law, but gave it a broader scope and deeper significance by declaring, “that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” Mat 5:28. He accordingly includes fornication and all sensual uncleanness under this prohibition, and also limits the right of divorce to the one cause of a breach of the marriage bond. Mat 5:32. The Jewish commentator Kalisch observes: “It requires scarcely any proof to show the honourable position which the woman occupied in Hebrew society . From the very creation of the woman, who is a part of man himself, and for whose sake he shall leave his father and his mother so that both be one flesh, down to the glorious picture of the virtuous wife in the last chapter of Proverbs, the whole Bible breathes the highest regard for female excellence, and assigns to the weaker sex that sound and noble rank which forms the just medium between its Oriental degradation and the exaggerated gallantry of the romantic epochs.”

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Exo 20:14. Thou shalt not commit adultery After securing the life, the Lord proceeds to secure that part of property which is often as dear, or dearer to human creatures, than life itself. The Hebrew word here used tinap, plainly shews that the prohibition in this commandment primarily refers to that act of uncleanness known by the name of adultery. also, in the Greek, implies the same. Here again, as on the former commandment, we refer to Mat 5:27; Mat 5:48 where it appears, that what we have observed on the word is just, and where we shall find the law drawn out to its full spiritual extent. See Lev 20:10 where death is denounced as the punishment of adultery; a punishment not peculiar to the Jewish law: it was inflicted on the adulterer by the laws of several heathen nations.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

This is the seventh commandment. Jesus is the great Commentator again here, Mat 5:28Mat 5:28 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

XIX

THE DECALOGUE THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT

Exo 20:14 ; Deu 5:18

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

Exo 20:14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Ver. 14. Thou shalt not commit adultery. ] Adultery only is named; because bestiality, sodomy, and other unclcannesses, though more heinous, yet they do not directly fight against the purity of posterity and human society, which the law mainly respects. See Trapp (for summary of Law) on “ Exo 20:17 “

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Lev 18:20, Lev 20:10, 2Sa 11:4, 2Sa 11:5, 2Sa 11:27, Pro 2:15-18, Pro 6:24-35, Pro 7:18-27, Jer 5:8, Jer 5:9, Jer 29:22, Jer 29:23, Mal 3:5, Mat 5:27, Mat 5:28, Mar 10:11, Mar 10:12, Rom 7:2, Rom 7:3, Eph 5:3-5, Heb 13:4, Jam 4:4, Rev 21:8

Reciprocal: Deu 5:18 – General 2Sa 12:9 – despised Job 24:15 – eye Job 31:11 – an heinous Jam 2:11 – Do not commit

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Exo 20:14. Thou shalt not commit adultery This commandment forbids all acts of uncleanness, with all those desires which produce those acts and war against the soul.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

20:14 Thou shalt not {k} commit adultery.

(k) But be pure in heart, word and deed.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

The seventh commandment 20:14

Adultery is sexual intercourse when one or both partners are married (or engaged, under Israelite law; cf. Deu 22:23-29) to someone else. Adultery destroys marriage and the home, the foundations of society (cf. Mat 5:27-28; 1Co 6:9-20). Adultery is an act, not a state. People commit adultery; they do not live in adultery, except in the sense that they may continually practice it.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT.

“Thou shalt not commit adultery.”– Exo 20:14.

This commandment follows very obviously from even the rudest principle of justice to our neighbour. It is among those that St. Paul enumerates as “briefly comprehended in this saying, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”

And therefore nothing need here be said about the open sin by which one man wrongs another. Wild and evil theories may be abroad, new schemes of social order may be recklessly invented and discussed; yet, when the institution of the permanent family is assailed, every thoughtful man knows full well that all our interests are at stake in its defence, and the nation could no more survive its overthrow than the Church.

But when our Lord declared that to excite desire through the eyes is actually this sin, already ripe, He appealed to some deeper and more spiritual consideration than that of social order. What He pointed to is the sacredness of the human body–so holy a thing that impurity, and even the silent excitement of passion, is a wrong done to our nature, and a dishonour to the temple of the Holy Ghost.

Now, this is a subject upon which it is all the more necessary to write, because it is hard to speak about.

What is the human body, in the view of the Christian? It is the one bond, as far as we know in all the universe, between the material and the spiritual worlds, one of which slopes thence down to inert molecules, and the other upward to the throne of God.

Our brain is the engine-room and laboratory whereby thought, aspiration, worship express themselves and become potent, and even communicate themselves to others.

But it is a solemn truth that the body not only interprets passively, but also influences and modifies the higher nature. The mind is helped by proper diet and exercise, and hindered by impure air and by excess or lack of food. The influence of music upon the soul has been observed at least since the time of Saul. And hereafter the Christian body, redeemed from the contagion of the fall, and promoted to a spiritual impressibility and receptiveness which it has never yet known, is meant to share in the heavenly joys of the immortal spirit before God. This is the meaning of the assertion that it is sown a natural (soulish) body, but shall be raised a spiritual body. In the meantime it must learn its true function. Whatever stimulates and excites the animal at the cost of the immortal within, will in the same degree cloud and obscure the perception that a man’s life consisteth not in his pleasures, and will keep up the illusion that the senses are the true ministers of bliss. The soul is attacked through the appetites at a point far short of their physical indulgence. And when lawless wishes are deliberately toyed with, it is clear that lawless acts are not hated, but only avoided through fear of consequences. The reins which govern the life are no longer in the hands of the spirit, nor is it the will which now refuses to sin. How, then, can the soul be alert and pure? It is drugged and stupified: the offices of religion are a dull form, and its truths are hollow unrealities, assented to but unfelt, because unholy impulses have set on fire the course of nature, in what should have been the temple of the Holy Ghost.

Moreover, the Christian life is not one of mere submission to authority; its true law is that of ceaseless upward aspiration. And since the union of husband and wife is consecrated to be the truest and deepest and most far-reaching of all types of the mystical union between Christ and His Church, it demands an ever closer approach to that perfect ideal of mutual love and service.

And whatever impairs the sacred, mysterious, all-pervading unity of a perfect wedlock is either the greatest of misfortunes or of crimes.

If it be frailty of temper, failure of common sympathies, an irretrievable error recognised too late, it is a calamity which may yet strengthen the character by evoking such pity and helpfulness as Christ the Bridegroom showed for the Church when lost. But if estrangement, even of heart, come through the secret indulgence of lawless reverie and desire, it is treason, and criminal although the traitor has not struck a blow, but only whispered sedition under his breath in a darkened room.

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary