10 Commandment: Seventh Commandment

<p>For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ <a href="https://www.douglasjacoby.com/dec7/" target="_blank"><strong>website.</strong></a></p><p><strong>So far</strong></p><ul><li>We have studied four commandments related to God and 2 related to our fellow human beings. Here we find ourselves in the middle of the ethical commandments.</li><li>Sexual ethics is an area considered to be highly personal and "private," yet through most of human history sexual mores were never a matter of personal preference.</li><li>Of all the commandments, this one may generate the greatest push-back. Western culture seems obsessed with breaking the 7th and 10th commandments.</li></ul><p><strong>Text</strong></p><ul><li>The 7th commandment</li><li>Exodus 20:14: <i>You shall not commit adultery.</i></li></ul><p><strong>Comments</strong></p><ul><li>"The Adulterous Bible" of 1631 accidentally omitted the <i>not </i>(oops!). Watching movies and popular TV sitcoms, one would think God's will for us <i>did</i> include extramarital affairs!</li><li>Like the prohibitions on murder, theft, and lying, this prohibition is universal. All religions condemn it. Only oversexed and irreligious (modern western) culture celebrates adultery.</li><li>Whereas in the ancient world men often had wives (for procreation) and mistresses (for recreation), in God's word we are to be one-woman men, or one-man women (to use Paul's phrasing in 1 Tim 3 and Titus 1). Such dedication outside God's people is as rare today as it was back then.</li><li>Adultery was originally a property crime, a sin against the husband. Of course it is more. In Psalm 51, we read that David's sin (2 Samuel 11) was fundamentally against God, even though he's sinned against the woman he lusted for, the husband he displaced, and the accomplices to his adultery (his servants and Joab). Like all sin, sexual sin is an offense against God. In fact, failure to obey the 5th - 10th commandments is always a sin against God.</li><li>Jesus ups the stakes, doesn't he (Matthew 5)?</li><li>Not