Exodus 20:14

THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT, Exodus 20:14.

14. Thou shalt not commit adultery Next to the criminal blood-guiltiness of him who assaults God’s image by destroying human life is that of him or her who violates the sacredness of the marriage bond. He who created man in his own image created them male and female, (Genesis 1:27,) and declared that a man and his wife should be regarded as one flesh . Genesis 2:24. Comp . Matthew 19:3-9; Mark 10:2-12. Weighty and suggestive, also, are the apostle’s words upon this sacred relation, in Ephesians 5:23-33. A sound scriptural view of the sacredness of the marriage relation exhibits the essential criminality of bigamy and polygamy . Although these abominable evils forced themselves into the domestic life of patriarchs and other distinguished men of Old Testament times, the law of God and nature has ever frowned upon them, and pursued them with a curse . Our Lord showed clearly, in the passage above cited, that these sins had been tolerated because of the people’s perversity, and in spite of the original law and commandment. He not only re-announced the ancient law, but gave it a broader scope and deeper significance by declaring, “that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” Matthew 5:28. He accordingly includes fornication and all sensual uncleanness under this prohibition, and also limits the right of divorce to the one cause of a breach of the marriage bond. Matthew 5:32. The Jewish commentator Kalisch observes: “It requires scarcely any proof to show the honourable position which the woman occupied in Hebrew society . From the very creation of the woman, who is a part of man himself, and for whose sake he shall leave his father and his mother so that both be one flesh, down to the glorious picture of the virtuous wife in the last chapter of Proverbs, the whole Bible breathes the highest regard for female excellence, and assigns to the weaker sex that sound and noble rank which forms the just medium between its Oriental degradation and the exaggerated gallantry of the romantic epochs.”