God's Concern for Marriage

A Verse

Exodus 20:14

You shall not commit adultery.

A Comment

When we encounter the prohibition against adultery in the seventh commandment, we must pay close attention to the LORD’s specificity to address the marriage relationship. While it is undoubtedly true that Scripture addresses all sorts of sexual immorality, the fact that adultery is singled out in the Ten Commandments is significant. But why is this the case?

I believe this is significant because the marriage relationship, which is a covenant relationship, is concerned with faithfulness. When one or both parties, which can only be one man and one woman, of a marriage, break their promises to one another before God and others, they become unfaithful to God, each other, and the people who were witnesses to their promises.

On this point, I find Peter Craigie’s comments incredibly helpful. Commenting on the Seventh Commandment, as it appears in Deuteronomy, Craigie writes,

The reason why adultery is singled out for attention in the Decalog is because adultery, more than other illicit sexual behavior, has to do with unfaithfulness in a relationship of commitment. Marriage was a binding commitment of faithfulness between two persons and it was in principle similar to the covenant relationship itself. The crime of adultery was the social equivalent to the religious crime of having other gods (5:5); both offenses involved unfaithfulness and both were therefore reprehensible to the God of the covenant, whose character it was to be totally faithful. It is this emphasis, that faithfulness (expressed in obedience) must permeate every sphere of life, both the religious and the secular, that gives a distinctive character to the Israelite law on adultery. Adultery of one partner in a marriage involved not only unfaithfulness to the other partner, but also unfaithfulness to God.

Another way to say this would be to say that marriage is a microcosm of faithfulness to God. Those who would be faithfully committed to God, would also be the type of person who would be faithfully committed to their spouse. For, they understood that faithfulness in all things is a defining mark of belonging to God’s people. God’s people are a faithful people. They are faithful to God. They are faithful to their parents. They are faithful to their spouses. They are faithful because God is faithful and has called them to be faithful.

Obviously, there is more at stake in the Seventh Commandment than initially meets the eye. The marriage commitment is about far more than pleasure and personal success. Marriage is fundamentally about reflecting faithfulness to another as a testimony to the faithfulness of God.

Thus, as God’s people, we ought to honor marriage (Hebrews 13:4), which means recognizing that marriage is only and always between one man and one woman in a monogamous, covenantal relationship before God and others until death does them part. Neither culture nor the government gets to redefine what God created for His glory and our good. Marriage belongs to God and ought to be upheld in honor by all.

A Prayer

Would you pray with me this morning?

A Blessing

Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.