Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God.

Script:

Be faithful in marriage.

Exodus, Chapter 20, verse 14, Contemporary English Version

VK: Hi and welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. I’m Victoria K. We’re happy to have you with us for another episode of Anchored by Truth. Today, we are continuing our series on the Ten Commandments. With us today in the studio we have RD Fierro. RD is an author and the founder of Crystal Sea Books. So far in this series we have covered the first 6 commandments. Today, we are going to discuss the 7th commandment which we heard in our opening scripture. RD, many Bible commentators divide the 10 commandments into 2 groups that are called tables. The first table consists of the first 4 commandments which speak about our relationship with God. The last 6 commandments speak to our relationship with other people. Of the second table of the commandments 5 out of the 6 commandments are phrased as “You shall not” or as it was more traditionally phrased “Thou shalt not.” The first of the “you shall nots” is “you shall not murder” and we covered that commandment in the last episode. Today we are going to move on to “You shall not commit adultery.” Are there any opening observations you’d like to make before we do?

RD: Well, before we get into today’s discussion I would also like to welcome everyone to this episode of Anchored by Truth. And yes there are a couple of observations I’d like to make up front. One is that dividing the commandments into a group of the first 4 commandments and a second group of the last 6 is a common way of approaching the 10 – but it is not the only way that commentators have divided the commandments. Some commentators have divided the commandments into groups consisting of the first 3 commandments and a second group consisting of the last 7. The thought is that the first 3 commandments – have no other gods before me, don’t make any graven images, and don’t take God’s name in vain – all pertain to God’s individual person and majesty. The 4th commandment is to honor the Sabbath day and some commentators have seen it as the first commandment that applies to human behavior. And a few commentators have even done a division of 2 commandments and 8 commandments. So, one observation is that while the segregation of the commandments into a first and second table is common there is not unanimity on the structure of the segregation. A second observation, is that even though 8 of the commandments begin with “you shall not” or “thou shalt not” all of the commandments should be viewed as both affirming certain things while prohibiting others.

VK: For instance, we heard about the first “shall not” of the second table last week – which is “you shall not murder.” That’s a clear prohibition. But the flip side is that we have a duty, in addition to not murdering anyone, to protect life. We should take affirmative action to guard human life because all human beings are beings made in the image of God. Human beings are different from all other creatures because we bear the image of the Creator and bearing that image confers an inherent dignity and status on people. We’re special because God is special. No matter what contemporary culture tries to tell us we all retain that special status because of God’s decree. God’s image may be fractured or marred in us but it is still discernible. At any rate, the point is that the commandments have both affirmative and prohibitive aspects.

RD: Right. And a third observation I would make is that as we ponder the 10 commandments we need to remember the historical context in which they were given. The Hebrews were leaving Egypt after an extended period of servitude in a land that was not their own. They were starting a new chapter in their national story. As such it made sense that God wanted to establish a moral and ethical foundation for His nation that reflected His character and which would distinguish His people very clearly from the cultures that surrounded them. The Hebrews had lived under the Egyptian civil codes for a great many years and, of course, they had been exposed to the Egyptians’ idolatrous worship practices. Furthermore, God was going to displace the people in the land to which they were heading who also had depraved and perverse behaviors such as child sacrifice and ritual prostitution. God did not want His people to start out this new chapter of their national identity with the codes of the place they had just left or by being drawn into the practices of the societies they were replacing. So, it makes perfect sense that God would start them out with a firm set of standards on which their new nation was to be built.

VK: And part of what God wanted to prevent was His people from adopting many of the pagan sexual practices which were so common at that time in Palestine. But, as we have mentioned before, the behavioral standards that are contained in the 10 commandments were not new in the sense that they had never existed before. To the contrary, prohibitions against murder and lying had been in existence since the time man lived in the Garden of Eden. God was reaffirming an existing standard but codifying it in such a way that the Hebrews would have no excuse for not knowing how they were expected to behave. Now, the 7th commandment is often phrased “you shall not commit adultery” but for our opening scripture you picked the Contemporary English Version which says “be faithful in marriage.” Why did you pick that version?

RD: Because I think that the Contemporary English Version gives a better sense of the real scope of the commandment.

VK: How so?

RD: In our society and culture the word “adultery” is often limited to refer to a sexual relationship that occurs outside of marriage. If “adultery” is defined that way, that narrowly, an unmarried person literally couldn’t commit “adultery.”

VK: So, what you’re saying is that it would be possible to limit the definition of “adultery” to one specific action and doing so would actually defeat the purpose of God giving the commandment in the first place. It rather sounds like using the letter of the law to defeat the spirit of the law.

RD: Well, if we defined “adultery” as just a sexual affair outside of marriage that is what we would be doing – as you said we would, in effect, be using the letter of the law to defeat its spirit. The Contemporary English Version of the 7th commandment uses a “do” rather than a “do not” to express the command. The CEV says to “be faithful in marriage” which I think is more encompassing of what is actually in view. In the first place there are many people whose marriages have gotten into trouble even when there was no sexual activity outside of marriage. It’s possible to be unfaithful to your husband or wife and never have a physical relationship with someone else.

VK: Especially in our day and age when it’s common for both a husband and a wife to work outside the home many people will spend many of their waking hours with people other than their spouse. In fact, it’s not uncommon these days for people to spend far more time with the people at their job than they do with their husband and wife. That always presents a temptation for someone to develop a closer relationship with someone else than they do with their husband or wife. We have even coined phrases like “work wife” because it’s so commonplace for a man or woman to develop their closest relationships at the job rather than at home.

RD: Exactly. The economic patterns of our culture and many others have introduced relationship temptations that were frankly unknown 20, 30, or 50 years ago. It’s worth noting that the 7th commandment was given to a society that was overwhelmingly agrarian. Most people in ancient societies made their living by farming or tending flocks or herds. Families were together almost all the time. When they weren’t, more likely than not, it was for a specific reason like a religious festival or public gathering. So, the individual was going to be in a group and not necessarily in prolonged contact with other single individuals. In short, people today face far more temptation to develop close relationships outside their immediate families simply because we are far more mobile and less tied to immediate family contact.

VK: But the presence of greater amounts of temptation does not lessen the force of the commandment. In fact, if anything, it makes the 7th commandment more important because it means we need to take more care to avoid entanglements when we are away from our spouse or family. And, again, we aren’t necessarily talking about sexual activity. A lot of people who spend all day at their work are going to be tempted to make their primary source of emotional support somebody at their job rather than their spouse. And with the internet age, ironically, it is now possible for people to communicate and share intimate communication even when they are not physically present. This makes it possible for people to develop emotional connections with people that they don’t spend physical time with like working together. People today can have “internet affairs” which would also be a violation of the 7th commandment. We can see this from what the Apostle Paul wrote in Galatians, chapter 5, verse 19 which says, “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness. “

RD: Right. One current Bible commentator, Rick Renner, has said this: “When Paul begins his list of the works of the flesh, he begins with the sexual sins of adultery, fornication, and uncleanness. The word “adultery” and “fornication” both come from the same Greek word — the word porneia. This word includes all sexual activity outside of marriage — including both adultery and homosexuality. When referring to a woman who has committed adultery, the New Testament used the word pornos. This is the word for a prostitute, and it very vividly informs us that a woman who has committed adultery has prostituted herself. She may not have sold herself for money; perhaps she traded her heart, her body, or her emotions for romance, for emotional support, or for a variety of other things. But regardless of why she did it, God says she has sold herself and entered into the sin of prostitution.”

VK: Wow. That’s a pretty sobering assessment. And even though Mr. Renner has primarily pointed out the problem of women committing adultery we should note that the same thing goes for men. A man who commits adultery has prostituted himself just as much a woman. That’s one of the truly sad comments we have to make about cultural changes of the last few decades. Sexual deviancy has now become an equal opportunity plague.

RD: Yes. So, one big takeaway from this discussion is that the 7th commandment is not limited to an isolated activity which would then free people up to engage in other kinds of immorality, sexual or not, and yet somehow claim that they did not commit adultery. Jesus was pointing this out in his famous observation in Matthew 5:27-28. In the New International Version Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Now it’s important to note that Jesus was not saying that a man who looks at a woman lustfully has committed a sin that is equal to the man who actually engages in sex. What Jesus pointed out is that we want to limit the scope of our sins to specific actions that we can somehow claim weren’t sinful at all. But God looks at our hearts, in large part, because that’s where all sins begin.

VK: And Jesus noted that when He said, in Matthew, chapter 15, verses 18 through 20, “the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person;” That’s also from the New International Version.

RD: So, we can see that 7th commandment is not limited to an isolated activity in the way that many people would like to define it. The 7th commandment is concerned with faithfulness, with fidelity. The Contemporary English Version expresses this very well when it says, “Be faithful in marriage.” And while the 7th commandment was specifically focused on marriage let’s remember that there are only 2 human relationships that God has used to define His own relationship with people: marriage and parenting.

VK: So, what your saying is that God takes marriage so seriously that He has used the marriage relationship as a representation of how He relates to His church. The For instance, let’s listen to the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians, chapter 11, verse 2 when he’s trying to emphasize to the Corinthians church of his deep concern for them. Paul wrote, “I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.” And, of course, there is one of the most famous of all of the Bible’s prophecies concerning Christ’s second coming. In Revelation, chapter 19, verses 7 through 9 the Apostle John wrote this about Christ’s return to earth for His church. “For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.) Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And he added, “These are the true words of God.” That’s from the New International Version.

RD: Correct. In our day there has been a general decline in the respect and reverence for marriage but that is a consequence of our sin. The Bible always treats the marriage relationship with the utmost gravity. As one commentator said the 6th commandment which prohibits murder is all about God forbidding the destruction of the people that He created in His image. The 7th commandment then follows to prevent people from defiling the body through misuse.

VK: Well, I suppose some people might point out that there were many instances in the Bible of even Bible heroes engaging in sex with multiple partners. And some of those instances seem to be ok with God. For instance, King David had multiple wives. And 2 Samuel, chapter 12, verses 7 and 8 say, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah.” So, verse 8 says that God gave King Saul’s wives to David. That seems to be inconsistent with the 7th commandment.

RD: Well, certain implications of the 7th commandment that we see around us today do not recognize the differences in cultural and civil conditions that have been present at other times and in other places. In the case of the verse you just mentioned note that God was giving the wives of King Saul into David’s “arms.” Giving them into David’s arms was a euphemistic way of saying the “wives” were entrusted to David for David to protect them and provide for them, not necessarily for sexual purposes. Let’s remember that we are talking about a monarchial system of government where a marriage relationship to a king had implications with respect to a claim on the throne. If Saul’s wives had not been entrusted to David it might have been possible for another man to marry one or more and then assert a claim to the throne. By giving Saul’s wives to David God precluded the possibility of a bloody power struggle by one of Saul’s relatives or supporters.

VK: But David was not the only Bible hero to have multiple wives or sexual partners. Abraham had a son with his wife’s maid. And his grandson Jacob who was the patriarch of the 12 tribes of Israel actually had his 12 sons by 4 different women. Leah and Rachel were his wives but he also had sons by their maids. Did God approve of all of these relationships?

RD: I think it would be more correct to say that God did not intrude into the actions of sinful people which resulted in the relationships you’re mentioning. And God managed the fallout to continue the progress of His plan of redemption but that is not nearly the same thing as saying God approved of the relationship. In the case of Abraham and Hagar, Sarah’s maid, that relationship produced a conflict that continues even to this day through the descendants of Hagar and Sarah. Ishmael is considered to be the ancestor of modern Arabs and Sarah’s son, Isaac, is the ancestor of the Jews. And while Jacob had 2 wives it was only because Leah and Rachel’s father, Laban, deceived Jacob into marrying Leah. Jacob loved Rachel and would gladly have married only her. And there is no indication in the Bible that Rachel could not have been mother to all of the 12 sons that God intended to give to Jacob to found the 12 tribes. And in the case of Abraham and Hagar, Sarah was the one who insisted that Abraham have relations with her maid because in those days the child of the maid would have been reckoned legally as her son. But Sarah’s attempt to help fulfill God’s promise through human means has created misery now for over 3,000 years.

VK: God can, and does, bring good things out of the actions of sinful people but that is an illustration of God’s grace and mercy. And this, in no way, should serve as an excuse for sin or violating one of God’s commandments. So, one thing we can say for sure is that none of these situations, whether David, Abraham, or Jacob, are consistent with God’s perfect plan of one husband married to one wife. All of these situations either resulted from or produced situations that were filled with heartache and strife. The same thing is true for all of the other episodes in the Bible where the characters departed from the simple sense of the 7th commandment. King Solomon had hundreds of wives and concubines and the Bible records that they turned his heart away from the One True God. The first recorded instance in the Bible of polygamy was in Genesis chapter 4 with a man called Lamech who was a murderer and a violent and vengeful man. Samuel’s father had married two women but the Bible records a house filled with jealously, spite, and vitriol. There are no recorded instances in the Bible where the Bible speaks commendably of polygamy or sexual relationships with multiple partners. God may have tolerated such situations but his ideal for human relationships remains the one He designed at the beginning and expressed in the 7th commandment.

RD: So, one thing we can see from all of this is that the 7th commandment while it is expressed in the specifics of marriage and sex points to a more fundamental attribute which God expects to be present in His people – faithfulness, fidelity. God expects His children to be faithful in all of their dealings with other people and He expects them to respect the rights and privileges which He has conferred on His image bearers. God created the marriage bond to bring completeness to a creature that He built to live in communion and not solitarity. While some of His prophets were called to live solitary lives these were special situations and not God’s desire for people generally. But anytime any human being lives alongside or in the company of others there is the possibility of betrayal. And that’s what the 7th commandment specifically prohibits. We are not to betray God and we are not to betray the most important person in our lives, our God given spouse. Because it is absolutely sure that anyone who is willing to betray their spouse is going to be willing to betray anyone else that might be part of their life.

VK: And that’s a really important point. Someone willing to cheat on their husband or wife is probably going to be willing to cheat on just about every other relationship in their life – whether it’s their employer, their best friend, or their family.

RD: Some cynics are going to say that the 7th commandment did not address every conceivable situation involving sex and human relationships. We human beings will pile the questions on questions to try to find some loophole or excuse. Our question reveals sinful hearts. We ask them because we want to know the boundaries of the commandment. Why do we do that? We want to know how far we can deviate from God’s plain instructions before we “get into trouble.” But if we simply accept the fact that God has issued a plain commandment and our intention is to obey that commandment all the possible variations don’t matter.

VK: I see the point you’re making. The scope of potential violations doesn’t matter to the person who intends to be obedient. The concept of fidelity in marriage is pretty clear. If our intent is simply to obey the commandment we will not only not cheat on our husband or wife, we will go out of our way to avoid causing them harm because we don’t want to run the risk of being unfaithful. And we will accept the fact that God’s standard for physical intimacy is restricted to a husband and wife within the boundaries of the marital bond. It is our sinfulness that wants us to begin to develop some kind of exhaustive set of rules because we want to be able to argue that we aren’t guilty even if we wind up doing what we shouldn’t.

RD: Human beings, all human beings, are prone to performing this ethical calculus which essentially asks how we measure up against the requirement. We rarely focus on the fact that God us His standards for our good and just devote our efforts to seeking His will and conforming ourselves to it. Frankly, if we had that kind of an attitude many of the 10 commandments would not have been necessary. As Paul said, the law is our schoolmaster to reveal our sinfulness – and it does.

VK: And that’s a topic we will to continue to explore. If the ancient Hebrews hadn’t been like us they wouldn’t have needed the commandments to ensure they separated their behavior from those of the people they were displacing. But they were like us. So, God wanted them to begin a new chapter in their national life by having a right relationship with Him and a right relationship with each other. Sounds like a good time to go to our God in prayer. Today let’s listen to a prayer that our hearts and minds might be illuminated by the 3rd person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, so that our lives might increasingly conform to His will.

---- PRAYER ILLUMINATION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

VK: We’d like to remind our audience that a lot of our radio episodes are linked together in series of topics so if they missed any episodes or if they just want to hear one again, all of these episodes are available on your favorite podcast app. To find them just search on “Anchored by Truth by Crystal Sea Books.”

If you’d like to hear more, try out crystalseabooks.com where “We’re not perfect but our Boss is!”

(Opening Bible Quote from the Contemporary English Version)

Exodus, Chapter 20, verse 14, Contemporary English Version