The Seventh Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery
by xAI Grok
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
(Exodus 20:14)
Neither shalt thou commit adultery.
(Deuteronomy 5:18)
Adultery here means cheating: giving to another what belongs only to your spouse. It is not the one-flesh bed God blessed. It is theft of that bed.
The first word God spoke to man and woman
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
(Genesis 1:28)
He had made them male and female (Genesis 1:27). After the flood He said it again: Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth… bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein (Genesis 9:1, 7). To Jacob: I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 35:11).
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh (Genesis 2:24). Jesus repeated that word (Matthew 19:4-6; Mark 10:6-8). Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived (Genesis 4:1). That is how the earth is filled.
Be fruitful and multiply is not a command to cheat. It is a command to the married pair: man and wife, one flesh, offspring. Thou shalt not commit adultery does not cancel that blessing. It guards it. The child is to come from the house God named: a father and a mother, not from a stolen bed.
What Paul said
Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.
Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband.
The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife.
Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.
(1 Corinthians 7:2-5)
Unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband… and let not the husband put away his wife.
(1 Corinthians 7:10-11)
Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
(Hebrews 13:4)
The LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth.
(Malachi 2:14)
The man’s body is not his private store. The woman’s body is not hers to give away. Each belongs to the other. Withholding without consent is defrauding. Giving that body, or that heart, to a third person is cheating.
What Jesus taught
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)
Whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.
(Matthew 5:32)
For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications…
(Matthew 15:19; Mark 7:21)
They twain shall be one flesh… What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery.
(Matthew 19:5-6, 9)
Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.
(Mark 10:11-12)
Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery.
(Luke 16:18)
To the woman taken in adultery He said, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.
(John 8:11)
The look is already cheating in the heart. Cheating comes from within. One flesh is not to be split so a new partner can be taken. A writing of divorcement does not wash the cheat if the aim is another bed. A man can cheat against his wife. A woman can cheat against her husband. He did not call the sin small. He told her to stop.
How a man cheats on a woman, and a woman on a man
The acts are the same in kind.
Sexual contact with someone who is not your spouse.
Secret messages, pictures, or calls you would hide.
An “only a friend” bond where the heart, comfort, and secrets go to another and are kept from the spouse.
Lust fed on purpose: lingering looks, porn, following others as a private habit.
A second life: hidden phone, second account, lies about where you were.
Money spent on another, or hidden so the marriage cannot see it.
Travel, work, or drink used as cover.
Punishing the spouse by giving yourself to someone else.
Secrecy is the mark. If you would delete it before your spouse saw it, it is already on the wrong side of the line.
How believers refuse to cheat
Remember the body is not yours alone. Render due benevolence. Do not starve the marriage and then act shocked when temptation speaks.
Come together again after any short, agreed fast. Satan uses long refusal.
Do not keep a private friend of the opposite sex who gets what your spouse should get: time, secrets, praise, comfort.
No hidden phones, apps, or accounts. Light kills the affair before it starts.
Flee the first step. Joseph ran.
Tell the truth early: this person is getting too close. A secret is already a small affair.
Guard the eyes. Jesus tied cheating to the look.
Stay. Do not use a third person as the door out of a hard marriage.
If you have already cheated, confess to God and to the one you wronged. Cut contact. Do not manage two lives.
Fear God more than being caught. Adulterers God will judge. The spouse is not the only witness.
One flesh is not a feeling. It is a belonging. Do not give away what is not only yours.
How a believer cheats on God
If adultery is cheating, then cheating on God is giving to another what belongs only to Him: worship, trust, love, obedience, the body, the heart.
Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?
(James 4:4)
I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
(2 Corinthians 11:2)
Israel was called a wife who went after lovers. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Cheating on God is breaking that marriage.
What belongs only to God: worship, trust for life and bread, the first love, obedience, the body as a temple, credit for every good gift. To give those to an idol, a man, a ministry, money, or self is to cheat.
Another god. The world as lover. Trust in mammon: ye cannot serve God and mammon (Matthew 6:24). A teacher or a church in God’s place: “God said” when God did not; glory given to a man, a gift, or even the Lamb as if He worked apart from the Father. Secret sin while keeping the meeting: lips near, heart far (Isaiah 29:13; Matthew 15:8). Using His name as cover. Withholding the body that was bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:13, 19-20). Leaving first love (Revelation 2:4). Fear of man: following racism, hate, or a word against the Bible because a parent or a crowd said it. Giving Satan the ear. He was a murderer and a liar from the beginning.
The believer is not his own. Ye are bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:20). God is not the needy party. He is the Holy One. The shame is on the one who leaves.
Have no other gods. Tell the truth in the dark. Give Him the first love and the open life. Do not starve prayer and then wonder why another voice sounds sweet. Return, thou backsliding Israel… for I am married unto you (Jeremiah 3:12, 14).
In Closing
Thou shalt not commit adultery. Be fruitful in the house God named. The bed of marriage is honourable. The stolen bed is cheating. The look is already inside the command. One flesh is not to be put asunder so another may be taken. Do not cheat on your spouse. Do not cheat on God.
Do unto others as you want them to do unto you.
Hallowed be thy name.
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