“Do not commit adultery.”
Adultery, that violation of the covenant, is wired within us as humans that it is wrong. In fact, the hurt and the fury that is raised by a man or woman is deadly. This is what King Solomon said in Proverbs 6 about adultery:
27 Can a man scoop fire into his lap
without his clothes being burned?
28 Can a man walk on hot coals
without his feet being scorched?
29 So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife;
no one who touches her will go unpunished.
30 People do not despise a thief if he steals
to satisfy his hunger when he is starving.
31 Yet if he is caught, he must pay sevenfold,
though it costs him all the wealth of his house.
32 But a man who commits adultery has no sense;
whoever does so destroys himself.
33 Blows and disgrace are his lot,
and his shame will never be wiped away.
34 For jealousy arouses a husband’s fury,
and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge.
35 He will not accept any compensation;
he will refuse a bribe, however great it is.
In fact, much of the strong texts in the Bible that people quibble with are about God’s righteous anger for spiritual adultery. It is a righteous jealousy.
But there is another side of adultery. We may have never had sexual relations with someone who is married, but Jesus taught that to lust was the equivalent of adultery:
“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. If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.” (Mt 5:27-30)
If you have lusted or fantasized with someone in your mind, then by the standards of Jesus you have committed adultery in your heart.
No one is innocent.
