Unless the natural desires that attract us to members of the opposite sex are channeled exclusively toward a loving marriage relationship, the temptation to engage in sexual immorality can easily overpower our self-control. This weakness is the focus of the Seventh Commandment.
"You shall not commit adultery" (Exodus 20:14).
Men and women were designed to be together, to need each other. Marriage, a natural union of a man and a woman, is divinely ordained, established by God at the creation. His laws—in particular the Seventh Commandment—authorize the marriage relationship and establish it as the foundation of the family, which in turn stands as the foundation and most important building block of society.
God told our first parents that "a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh" (Genesis 2:24). God's instruction clearly established what all future generations were supposed to learn regarding marriage and sex.
As children grow old enough to shoulder the responsibilities of a family and come to love and honor someone of the opposite sex, it is natural and proper for them to marry—be joined together—and create their own family apart from their parents. Only then should they "become one flesh" by physically uniting in a sexual relationship. Jesus makes it clear that God, from the beginning, intended that marriage be a monogamous and permanent relationship
"The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." (Matthew 19:3-6)
God intended that marriage and sex—in that order—exist as tremendous blessings to humanity. Their potential for good is boundless. But the same desires that bring a man and a woman together into a loving, natural relationship—a godly blessing—can pose risks.
Unless the natural desires that attract us to members of the opposite sex are channeled exclusively toward a loving marriage relationship, the temptation to engage in sexual immorality can easily overpower our self-control. This weakness is the focus of the Seventh Commandment: "You shall not commit adultery" (Exodus 20:14).
Adultery is the violation of the marriage covenant by willful participation in sexual activity with someone other than one's spouse. Since God's law sanctions sexual relationships only within a legitimate marriage, the command not to commit adultery covers, in principle, all varieties of sexual immorality. No sexual relationship of any sort should occur outside of marriage. That is the message of this commandment.
In much of the world sexual immorality is no longer regarded as a significant social evil. God, however, categorically condemns all forms of sexual immorality.
"But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death." (Revelation 21:8)
Ex 20:14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Le 20:10 And the man that committeth adultery with another man’s wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
De 5:18 Neither shalt thou commit adultery.
Pr 6:32 But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.
Jer 3:8 And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.
Jer 3:9 And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks.
Jer 5:7 How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots’ houses.
Jer 7:9 Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not;
Jer 23:14 I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.
Jer 29:23 Because they have committed villany in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbours’ wives, and have spoken lying words in my name, which I have not commanded them; even I know, and am a witness, saith the LORD.
Eze 16:32 But as a wife that committeth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband!
Eze 23:37 That they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands, and with their idols have they committed adultery, and have also caused their sons, whom they bare unto me, to pass for them through the fire, to devour them.
Ho 4:2 By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood.
Ho 4:13 They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof is good: therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom, and your spouses shall commit adultery.
Ho 4:14 I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom, nor your spouses when they commit adultery: for themselves are separated with whores, and they sacrifice with harlots: therefore the people that doth not understand shall fall.