Jesus on adultery

In this passage, Jesus expands a number of the commandments to include sins of the heart and mind. The Sermon on the Mount gives a taste of the infinite perfection of God:

Matt 5:20 “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

Matt 5:48 “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Jesus also came to bring the infinite grace of God, His power and presence in us. The disciples gasped in awe when they realised the standard Jesus set.

Matt 19:25-26

25 When His disciples heard it, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?”

26 But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Here lies the immeasurable glory of God: First, that God is infinitely perfect, and without such perfection we cannot approach Him. Second, that Jesus may dwell in us, allowing us to come to God. Does this mean we may continue in sin, because we are forgiven? No, of course not, but that question is covered in detail in Romans chapter six. Let’s go back to the Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus quotes the sixth commandment, “You shall not murder”, and expands it to include unjustified anger, and harsh words. He even says that whoever calls his brother an idiot is in danger of hellfire! Now, was Jesus joking about this? He didn’t really mean this, did He? Or did He mean that it was OK to call our brother an idiot because we can’t help it?

Jesus was not joking. Any and every sin separates us from God. Any sin, no matter how ‘small’ we may think it is, is enough to damn us to hell if it was not for the mercy of God. We may think, “Well I don’t kill people, I’m not such a sinner.” Jesus amplified this commandment so we could get the point. Sin is astronomically more widespread in our lives than we thought. Here we’re getting to the heart of salvation: we’re all sinners, and any sin and every sin brings eternal death, eternal separation from God.

The commandment ‘You shall not kill’ is still in force, right? Murder is still against God’s law. How do we know that? Because it’s illegal? Because it’s immoral? Because it’s ‘not loving’? No, we know murder is sin because the Bible says, ‘You shall not kill’. Jesus repeated the commandment, putting His own authority as the Son of God onto the commandment.

In Matt.5:27, Jesus quoted the seventh commandment, ‘You shall not commit adultery’. He gave His own weight to it, He affirmed it, and then expanded it to include looking in lust, ‘heart adultery’. Just as ‘You shall not kill’ is still in force today, so this is true for ‘You shall not commit adultery’.

In no way does this verse imply that adultery is now permissible, or that God now thinks it’s fine to lust after a woman. Committing adultery is still sin, whether it is committed in the bed or in the head. Jesus said it. These verses do not justify pre- or extra-marital sex any more than Matt 5:21-22 justifies murder.

Matt 5:32

“But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery.

Just a few verses after Jesus condemned lustful looking as adultery, He declares that divorce also breaks the seventh commandment, ‘You shall not commit adultery’. He also records the only reason given as grounds for divorce: one of the partners is having extra-marital sex. Jesus said that sex outside of marriage has such a devastating effect on the relationship that it may not be possible for the couple (who God had put together Matt.19:6) to remain ‘as one flesh’.

He repeats this principle later on in Matt. 19:9. Similar verses are recorded in Mark 10:11-12 and in Luke 16:18.

Mark 7:20-23

20 And He said, “What comes out of a man, that defiles a man.

21 “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,

22 “thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.

23 “All these evil things come from within and defile a man.”

Here is Jesus’ list of the sins of man, the things that defile us, make us unclean in the sight of God. Extra-marital and premarital sexual relations are considered in the same category as evil thoughts, murder, lying, stealing, pride and even blasphemy! It’s all sin, it all defiles us. Jesus said that murder is an evil thing, deceit is an evil thing, pride is an evil thing, and extra-marital sex is an evil thing.

This passage is repeated in Matt.15:18-20.

The Rich Young Ruler

Matt 19:16-19

16 Now behold, one came and said to Him, “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?”

17 So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”

18 He said to Him, “Which ones?” Jesus said,” ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’

19 ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Here Jesus quotes a few of the ten commandments to the rich young man. As in the Sermon on the Mount, He confirms the commandments and then expands them to include the sin of material selfishness (Matt.19:22). All these commandments are still in force. ‘You shall not kill’ is a law of God today in the same way as ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’, and in the same way as ‘You shall not commit adultery’.

This story is repeated in Luke 18:20.

The woman caught in adultery

John 8:3-11

3 Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst,

4 they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act.

5 “Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?”

6 This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.

7 So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.”

8 And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.

9 Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

10 When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?”

11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”

Jesus shows here the gentleness of God, the mercy which He came to bring. He did not rebuke the woman or demand the retribution spelled out in the law of Moses. He forgave her, and in the process impressed on all present the universality of sin. He forgave her and said, “Go and sin no more.” Did He say, “That’s OK, it wasn’t really sin”? No, He said it was sin, and that she should not continue in that sin. There is absolutely no indication in this account that Jesus considered adultery as anything other than sin.

Noticeably, there are no details given about the act of adultery itself that the woman had done. It is irrelevant whether she was a believer or not, whether she loved her sexual partner, whether she acted with consent or whether she was a prostitute. Adultery is sin, and Jesus says not to do it.

The Book of Revelations

Revelations chapters two and three contain letters written to seven churches in Asia. They were dictated to John while he was a prisoner on the island of Patmos. Jesus Himself visited John on the island in His glorified form as the Son of God, the conqueror of death. We can read the description of Jesus in chapter one. Jesus Christ personally dictated the letters, word for word, that John should send to the seven churches. Every word recorded in these seven letters was the word of Jesus.

Rev.2:12 begins the letter to the church in Pergamos. After commending them for not denying the faith despite persecution, Jesus chastises them:

Rev 2:14-16

14 But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.

15 So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.

16 Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

(KJV)

One of the things Jesus had against the church was that they had some members who held to a doctrine that justified fornication (NKJ: sexual immorality). He did not like it then, and He does not like it now. What did He want them to do? If they didn’t repent, they would experience the horror of having the Lord Himself fight against them.

The letter to the church in Thyatira begins in Rev.2:18. Jesus commends them for their works, love, service, faith and patience, but then severely chastens them:

Rev 2:20-24

20 “Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.

21 “And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent.

22 “Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds.

23 “I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works.

24 “Now to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine, who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I will put on you no other burden.

Thyatira had a self-proclaimed prophetess who taught the believers to commit fornication. Although the Lord gave her time to repent she refused to do so. Dire warnings of sickness and death follow, and the Lord finishes up by referring to the false doctrines they were following as ‘the depths of Satan’.

So what did Jesus think of extra-marital sex?

At no time did He condone it. At no time did He hint that it was OK. To the contrary, Jesus condemned it as sin, re-affirmed that the ten commandments were still valid, and expanded them to include deeper sins within the heart of man. Much later, after He had died, risen from the dead, ascended into Heaven and sent the Holy Spirit to fill the believers with His power, after the Holy Spirit had empowered the Christians to preach the Gospel to Jews and Gentiles, after the early church began to revel in the spiritual freedom of the grace of God, after all that, Jesus personally still condemned adultery and fornication among believers. As Christians, we follow Jesus. The servant is not above his master, and we cannot ascribe doctrines to Jesus that He did not hold to. There is nowhere in the Bible to give the slightest suggestion that Jesus would approve of extra-marital sex or premarital sex, in any form, under any circumstances, between any people, at any time!

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