The Seventh
Commandment"Thou shalt not commit adultery." (Exodus 20:14)
By Garner Ted ArmstrongToday, divorce outpaces marriage in many large cities! When I first began preaching on this subject over 27 years ago, I was saying, "Divorce threatens to break up every third American home!"
In spite of constant preaching on the part of many church organizations, the tidal wave of desertions, abandonments, broken homes and divorce has surged ever upward until there are more divorce decrees issued in some big cities than marriage licenses!
Is there any subject more talked of, written about, portrayed in television and the motion pictures than sex?
One may browse through any bookstore and see literally dozens of novels, documentaries, sensational revelations and other "sex-ploitation"-type books.
Hollywood personalities are unveiled as voyeurs and homosexuals, and the lurid details of their incredible number of sexual escapades are eagerly gobbled up by the readers of prurient filth by the millions!
Autobiographies sell like proverbial "hotcakes" as millions read of the dozens of trysts between this or that Hollywood actor or actress, who, it seemed, was in bed with most of the population of the town, with the conceivable exception of the mayor and chief of police!
And what of the movies? Is there any motion picture produced today which does not portray fornication, lesbianism, homosexuality, transvestitism, voyeurism, sadism and every conceivable form of sex-related crime and violence?
As in the case of every other one of the Ten Commandments, Jesus Christ of Nazareth showed the command against adultery reaches out to embrace every aspect of human sexuality - that it is a command which may be broken in the human heart, and not, alone, by the deed.
"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 with her already in his heart" (Matthew 5:27, 28).
Even this command is the subject of ribaldry, buffoonery and jesting. A recent country-and-western song, for example, features the usual lonesome "cowboy" nasally intoning that he and his would-be lover are not "really strangers" for he has already "loved her in his mind"!
The Seventh Commandment is a clear command against lust.
But lust - the blatant, unbridled, hedonistic and insatiable desire for sensual gratification which is a perverted, self-centered, incoming feeling - is one of the most commonly expressed of all human appetites!
It is fair to say that practically all advertising is skillfully designed to appeal to lust! Whether it is the shiny new car, diet pills to give you a slimmer body, juicy, mouth-watering views of attractive foods, beverages, holiday resorts or sensuous nightwear, the emphasis is always on sexuality and lust!
It is proverbial that seminudity is used to sell monkey wrenches!
Just what the sexy, sensuous girl scantily clad in a filmy negligee, slithering over the windshield and hood of the imported sports model has to do with the engineering, comfort, safety, mileage or durability of the automobile is obscure.
However, advertisers are not in the business of selling products; they are in the business of selling lust FOR the product!
As was mentioned earlier, all of the Ten Commandments "overlap."
Thus, the command against adultery overlaps directly with the final commandment, which says, in part, "Thou shalt not covet . . . thy neighbor's wife." Both of these overlap with the command against idolatry (having another "god" in front of the true God), for the apostle Paul said, "Covetousness, which is idolatry"! (Colossians 3:5).
Human nature is a collection of vanity, jealousy, lust and greed!
The baser human appetites are common to human sensuality.
We are sensual, physical, carnal, flesh-and-blood human creatures who, apart from the knowledge and truth of God, would be restrained in our desire for self-gratification only by the shifting and changing mores and "rules" of a godless, lawless, nihilistic society.
Actually, the vast majority in our nations today are living in precisely that fashion! Their sexual codes are dictated only by "what is happening," by what "everybody else is doing" and by the catch phrase "If it feels good, do it!"
But the command against adultery was God's law to preserve marriage!
Almighty God chose marriage as a microcosm of the Kingdom of God!
When God says the partners in marriage "shall become one flesh," He refers directly to sexual intercourse in marriage.
Almighty God designed them "male and female," and then established lows for the sanctity and protection of that vital and foundational unit. To commit acts which destroy this basic building block of any society - which rend and tear at the very fabric of marriage - is to commit acts and deeds which are tearing down society itself!
Since World War II, moral standards have changed dramatically in the United States.
There are many causes for the morals toboggan slide of our societies; socio-economic pressures, the "future shock" syndrome, the subtle and insistent voice of entertainment, the liberalizing of religion and social standards, drug abuse - all these and many other causes could be listed for the incredible effects with which we presently must live.
Look at our nations from God's perspective.
Rampant homosexuality and "gay rights" activists have burst upon the scene with torchlight marches, demonstrations, rallies and proven political clout.
In many big cities the so-called "closet queens" wield real political power.
How like ancient Sodom and Gomorrah, which Almighty God destroyed by fire and brimstone from heaven!
Make no mistake! The Seventh Commandment is a very broad command applying to any form of sexual sins, whether in or out of marriage. Of homosexuality, God says, "Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
"Who changed [exchanged] the truth of God into [for] a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
"For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections:
For even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
"And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.
"And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
"Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
"Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
"Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful,
"Who knowing the judgment of God [ordinance, or laws of God], that they which commit such things ARE WORTHY OF DEATH, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them."!
Notice! Here is a vast list of human sins, including many direct and flagrant violations of the Ten Commandments! However, notice such things as envy, deceit, "whispering," and being implacable and unmerciful are placed in the same categories!
The penalty for these things? Death!
Perversion, homosexuality and deviate sexual practices are soundly condemned of God in the Bible! No amount of political activism, gay rights demonstrations, political power, legislation, or a never-ending stream of thousands of books sanctioned by the courts of our land is ever going to change the divine decree of God!
Consider our society the way it really is:
1. Every sixth American male has homosexual tendencies.
2. Approximately 30 percent of all men will experience sexual impotency at some time; the causes are manifold, but only a tiny percent is truly physical.
3. Only a small percentage of marriages are truly "happy," and yet even these will experience some sexual dysfunction now and then.
4. Sexual experimentation reaches into the early elementary grades, and at least 20 percent of those barely reaching teenage have sexual experience.
5. About half of all those in the upper years of high school are actively committing fornication and other sex acts.
6. Ten percent of all teenage girls between the ages of
15 and 19 become pregnant, and over half of all teenage marriages are the result of premarital pregnancies.
7. About eight out of 10 of these hasty marriages break up within only a few years, and of all teenage marriages about half are torn apart by divorce within five years.
8. The unwanted children from these illicit situations are likely to end up as antisocial, hostile, suffering every conceivable physical, mental and social disorder. Often they are physically abused by young, untrained and uncaring parents.
9. Tremendous numbers of children are sexually abused, either by a relative, by parents themselves or friends of the family.
10. Venereal disease is second only behind communicable colds and flus among teenagers! New, virulent strains of VD similar to "shingles," and called a form of "herpes," are now become epidemic among youths. And it is said to be completely incurable!
Yet, only small percentages of those with VD among teenagers have real comprehension of the disease.
All of the foregoing represents a monumental attack against the institution of marriage!
The Seventh Commandment is the "marriage protecting" commandment.
If it were obeyed, in the spiritual application as it applies to all sexual promiscuity, our nations would be rid of an incalculable amount of suffering, disease and death!
Again, what's "wrong" with this commandment?
True, it flies in the face of human sensual appetites. True, it is largely ignored and rejected by society in general.
However, Jesus Christ magnified the Seventh Commandment, making it far more binding by saying that the thought of adultery is sin!
Ponder the question: "What would our Western civilizations be like if everyone kept this Seventh Commandment?"
First, no divorce! No desertions, runaways or abandonments. No wife abuse. Families would be held together as tight-knit social units, the very building blocks of civilization.
With such solid family units, all of society would greatly benefit! Productivity, physical and mental health, vibrant economies, an absence of sickness, disease and death; the list would go on and on.
The great blessings which would come upon any nation keeping even one of the Ten Commandments of God are incalculable.
Almighty God intends that marriages be lifted to a "God-plane" level! The apostle Paul had much to say about the state of marriage, showing it was analogous to the relationship between Christ and the church! (Ephesians 5:21-33).
Therefore, Almighty God called unfaithfulness toward Him on the part of His nation Israel "adultery," or fornication!
Read Ezekiel 16! In this chapter you see the picture of a beautiful young woman (Israel) who committed "whoredoms," which God uses as an analogy to show how His people had depended upon political and military alliances, instead of depending upon God. Read Ezekiel 23! Here are two sisters, "Aholah and Aholibah," portrayed as Samaria and Jerusalem, meaning the northern l0-tribed house of Israel and the southern House of Judah.
God says, "And Aholah played the harlot when she was Mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours . . ." (Ezekiel 23:5).
The entire chapter is given over to God's judgments on the sins of these two nations, which are portrayed as young wives who left their legitimate husband and sold themselves to their "lovers."
God said, "Then said I unto her that was old in adulteries, Will they now commit whoredoms with her, and she with them?
"Yet they went in unto her, as they go in unto a woman that playeth the harlot; so they went in unto Aholah and Aholibah, the lewd women.
"And the righteous men, they shall judge them after the manner of adulteresses, and after the manner of women that shed blood; because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands . . ." (Ezekiel 23:43-45).
God had said, "I became an husband unto them," showing that the covenant God made with Israelis analogous to a marriage.
It is obvious the Seventh Commandment is strongly supported throughout Scripture! Obviously, it is not "done away." Again, "what is wrong" with the Seventh Commandment? Absolutely nothing! It is given for the good of all mankind - from a loving God!
It is for the preservation of marriage; for the good of all mankind, and for the sanctity and protection of the family unit.
It is actively binding upon mankind today!
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This publication is intended to be used as a personal study tool. Please know it is not wise to take any man's word for anything, including ours, so prove all things for yourself from the pages of your own Bible. Because your salvation is between you and God, it is through such personal verification that you will gain confidence and come to know for yourself what is truth.
For additional related knowledge and understanding,
may we suggest the following titles:Why Should You Repent
Are Christians "Under The Law"?
Must You Loathe Yourself To Become a Christian?
Why Keep Saturday for Sunday?
What Is God's Name?
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