Adultery: It Destroys the Soul
by David Padfield
In giving the Ten Commandments, Jehovah declared, "You shall not
commit adultery" (Exodus 20:14). The wise King Solomon said the
adulterer "destroys his own soul" (Proverbs 6:32). The apostle Paul
tells us "fornicators and adulterers God will judge" (Hebrews 13:4).
The Greek word for "adulterer" (moichos) is found in such passages
as Luke 18:11 and 1 Cor. 6:9. An adulterer is one "who has unlawful
intercourse with the spouse of another" (Vine's Expository
Dictionary Of Biblical Words, p. 14).
People often ask, "Why is adultery so bad? What harm does it cause?"
While modern society sometimes winks at adultery, God will hold
adulterers accountable (Revelation 21:8).
When the great patriarch Job gave a speech affirming his moral
character, he said, "If my heart has been enticed by a woman, or if
I have lurked at my neighbor's door, then let my wife grind for
another, and let others bow down over her. For that would be
wickedness; yes, it would be iniquity worthy of judgment. For that
would be a fire that consumes to destruction, and would root out all
my increase." (Job 31:9-12). In verse 11, some translations use the
words "heinous crime" instead of "iniquity" to describe adultery.
In commenting on Job 31, brother Homer Hailey wrote: "Adultery is
described as fulfilling an extremely wicked plan, committing an
outrageous crime. It was an offense worthy of condemnation by the
judges God and man. Under the Mosaic law it was punishable by death
(Lev. 20:10); and under the new covenant, the furnace of fire (Rev.
21:8, 'fornicators' include all sexual perversions and violations).
Figuratively, it is a fire that consumes the whole person, body,
soul, and spirit (cf. Prov. 6:20-35; ch. 7). Also, when such
immorality becomes the accepted conduct of a nation, it brings that
nation to destruction (cf. Israel and Judah). Time does not change
principles; what was morally true in Job's day is equally true now."
(Now Mine Eye Seeth Thee, A Commentary On Job, p. 267).
Adulterers are covenant breakers. When a young couple gets married
they enter into a covenant (Malachi 2:14). The seductress is one who
"forsakes the companion of her youth, and forgets the covenant of
her God" (Proverbs 2:17). Wedding vows are a covenant between the
man, the woman and God. The man and woman vow their faithfulness to
each other and promise to "forsake all others" as long as they both
shall live. Adulterers break this promise and are therefore liars.
They have lied to their spouse and to their God. They lied to their
friends who stood up with them at their wedding and served as legal
witnesses. They usually end up lying to their children as well.
What makes adultery different from other sins? In 1 Corinthians 6:18
Paul wrote, "Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is
outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against
his own body." "Every sin that man doeth, is without the body: the
apostle means all sin except fornication. It might be objected that
sins like suicide, drunkenness and so on are surely not without the
body. Yet it is fornication alone which has no other purpose but the
satisfaction of the lusts of the body. An unchaste person does not
care what becomes of the harlot. In a case of suicide the pleasure
of the body is not sought. As to intemperance, it arises mostly in
sociable company. In the case of insobriety it is not the act of
eating and drinking but the excess of eating and drinking which is
sinful. In the case of fornication, however, the action in itself,
the carnal communion, is sinful. Food comes from without to the
body, the sexual appetite arises in the body and has it as its only
domain. Thus Paul is able to write that fornication is a sin against
the body. The words: without the body must mean therefore: having
their purpose without the body. A fornicator aims solely at the
satisfaction of his own body and he disregards the essential purpose
of the human body." (Grosheide, Commentary On The First Epistle To
The Corinthians, p. 151).
In the early 1900's A. T. Robertson commented on the phrase "sins
against his own body." He wrote, "The fornicator takes his body
which belongs to Christ and unites it with a harlot. In fornication
the body is the instrument of sin and becomes the subject of the
damage wrought. In another sense fornication brings on one's own
body the two most terrible bodily diseases that are still incurable
(gonorrhea and syphilis) that curse one's own body and transmit the
curse to the third and fourth generation. Apart from the high view
given here by Paul of the relation of the body to the Lord no
possible father or mother has the right to lay the hand of such
terrible diseases and disaster on their children and children's
children. The moral and physical rottenness wrought by immorality
defy one's imagination." (Word Pictures In the New Testament, Vol.
IV, p. 123). The sexually transmitted diseases of our day make
gonorrhea and syphilis look mild by comparison.
I did not vote for Ross Perot in the last election. However, I did
like a few of things he said. When asked by the news media about his
company's policy of firing executives who cheated on their wives, he
said, "If a man's own wife can't trust him, why should I?" An
adulterer can not be trusted by anyone, especially his spouse.
An adulterer can be forgiven of his sin like the adulterers and
homosexuals at Corinth (1 Cor. 6:9-11). However, there are lingering
consequences of sin, and especially the "heinous crime" of adultery.
It would take many years for one guilty of adultery to ever be
qualified to serve as an elder or deacon, since both are to be
"blameless." How long would it take for an adulterer to restore his
good name and "have a good testimony among those who are outside" (1
Timothy 3:7)?
It is a sad fact that many gospel preachers have been guilty of
adultery. I can not understand why some brethren want them to keep
preaching. Should preachers who have been guilty of adultery go back
to "making tents" for a living? They can not be trusted by their
spouse. Do you trust them? They have proven themselves to be liars
and covenant breakers, and now they want elders and other brethren
to have confidence in them? It is amazing that some who are the most
discerning in detecting "heresy" among us are men who have had
trouble finding their own bedroom. Maybe they think that by focusing
on some current doctrinal issue brethren might forget how they broke
their wedding vows, ruined their reputation, lied to both God and
their spouse and caused another man's wife to commit this "heinous
crime" with them.
When a preacher commits adultery it affects every member of the
congregation where he labors. A preacher where I grew up committed
adultery. He left the Lord and his spouse and the brethren withdrew
their fellowship from him. After he left, the brethren looked
differently at all preachers. It took more than a decade before
those brethren were able to look at any preacher without suspicion.
Sometimes men caught in adultery claim they are just like King David
of Israel and therefore we should just overlook their
transgressions. I have read of King David. David was a friend of
God. These men are not King David! When Nathan confronted David with
his sin, David humbly and meekly repented. David did not deny his
adultery nor seek to censure Nathan. I have never known an adulterer
like David. Everyone I have ever heard of who was accused of
adultery first tried to deny the crime. Then, after proof was
brought forth, they tried to minimize the seriousness of their crime
or blame someone else. Many speak ill of the ones who try to bring
them to repentance.
We would not have to spend time discussing the consequences of
adultery if people would heed the words of Paul to "flee
fornication" (1 Cor. 6:18). I have never read a better exposition of
these words than from the pen of Albert Barnes: "There is force and
emphasis in the word flee. Man should escape from it; he should not
stay to reason about it -- to debate the matter -- or even to
contend with his propensities, and to try the strength of his
virtue. There are some sins which a man can resist; some about which
he can reason without danger of pollution. But this is a sin where a
man is safe only when he flies; from pollution only when he refuses
to entertain a thought of it; secure when he seeks a victory by
flight, and a conquest by retreat. Let a man turn away from it
without reflection on it and he is safe. Let him think, and reason,
and he may be ruined. 'The very passage of an impure thought through
the mind leaves pollution behind it.' An argument on the subject
often leaves pollution; a description ruins; and even the
presentation of motives against it may often fix the mind with
dangerous inclination on the crime. There is no way of avoiding the
pollution but in the manner prescribed by Paul; there is no man safe
who will not follow his direction. How many a young man would be
saved from poverty, want, disease, curses, tears, and hell, could
these two words be made to blaze before them like the writing before
the astonished eyes of Belshazzar (Dan. v.), and could terrify him
from even the momentary contemplation of the crime." (Notes On The
New Testament, I Corinthians, pp. 106, 107).
I wish that every mother and father would sit down with their
teenage children and read together the words of Solomon as he
admonished his own son to "flee fornication." "For by means of a
harlot a man is reduced to a crust of bread; and an adulteress will
prey upon his precious life. Can a man take fire to his bosom, and
his clothes not be burned? Can one walk on hot coals, and his feet
not be seared? So is he who goes in to his neighbor's wife; whoever
touches her shall not be innocent." (Proverbs 6:26-29). ~
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