The 7th Commandment, Part 1

Jim ButlerExodus 20:14

The Seventh Commandment — 'You shall not commit adultery' (Exodus 20:14) — prohibits not only the specific act of adultery but subsumes all sexual sins under its scope, while positively requiring chastity and the promotion of righteous sexual ethics. This exposition establishes the basis of the commandment in the creational purpose of marriage (Genesis 2), the function of God's law as a revelation of his character, and the severe sanctions — capital punishment in Israel, present social consequences, and the final judgment of God — attached to its violation. The sermon then works through the prohibited acts: adultery, fornication, incest, rape (with careful exegesis of the contested cases in Deuteronomy 22), homosexuality, bestiality, unlawful divorce (tracing the lawful grounds of porneia and desertion through Deuteronomy 24, Matthew 19, and 1 Corinthians 7), and immodesty. Throughout, the law's severity is balanced by the gospel: 'such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus.'