The Seventh Commandment: You Shall Not Commit Adultery (Exodus 20:14)

What this episode covers

What a cultural reformation would take place if we began to take the seventh commandment seriously. It is not difficult to find illustrations of our radical need for this renewal. We could name prominent figures in every sphere of society that have committed adultery. We could see the breakdown of the covenant marriage, both its biblical definition as well as its value in a secular nation. One of the more obvious ways in which we see the problem is with the early indoctrination of our children. Girls and boys are inundated with perversions of marital love through entertainment, social media, and even the curriculum of public schools. The latest example of this is the promotion of the movie “Cuties” on Netflix. The director’s warning about the dangers of oversexualizing children, created a movie that exploited many children in the process. The outrage of so many Christians is encouraging, but we are rightly chastised for waiting this long to say something. If we are not properly training our children at home, we can be certain that they will be learning from whatever culture in which they are engrossed (e.g., Netflix, Tik Tok, Instagram, Facebook, etc.). Unfortunately, this perversion is nothing new. Church records throughout history reveal sexual sin to be one of the primary subjects of church discipline. In his exposition on the Westminster Shorter Catechism, Puritan pastor Thomas Watson wrote in the late 17th Century: If the devil should come and carry away all that are guilty of bodily uncleanness in this nation, I fear more would be carried away than would be left behind. There really is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9). Read Exodus 20:14 A Summary of the Series It’s been a month since we took a break from our study of the Ten Commandments so let me begin by summarizing the series. We began the series by laying out the three uses of the law. It’s first and primary purpose is to serve as a mirror revealing our need for Jesus. It also serves as a muzzle upon sin, which means it is useful for the broader culture to understand morality. And finally, it provides a map for believers to show their gratitude to God by living obediently by the Spirit. Before looking at the commandments individually we emphasized the importance of the preface, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Exodus 20:2). The Ten Commandments were not given to humanity from a distant God, but they were given to a people whom He had already rescued out of their slavery. We must keep that context in mind whenever we study these commandments, lest we turn our obedience into a work that earns justification before God. As we began to look at each commandment individually, we noted that the first four commandments focus on our relationship with God while the latter six deal with our relationship with one another. Of course, both categories overlap to a degree, but that is the general pattern of the commandments. In the First Commandment we are called to worship the one true God. In the Second Commandment we are forbidden from manufacturing our own means of worship. We worship the only God in the way He has prescribed. The Third Commandment elaborates on this by forbidding the misuse of God’s name. The Fourth Commandment concludes with a positive command to honor the Lord’s Day. We transition to our relationship with our neighbors in the fifth through tenth commandments. We spent two weeks each on the topic of honoring our parents, focusing on the parent/child relationship one week, then looking at the implication for our relationship with other authority figures God has placed over us. The Sixth Commandment teaches us not to murder, but it also implies the hatred within our hearts as a form of transgressing God’s will. The language on the surface of each commandment bears many implications when you consider how it is interpreted throughout Scripture. We wil

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