Question 108: What does the seventh commandment teach us about God?

 

Question 108: What does the seventh commandment teach us about God?

 

Answer: God condemns all adultery. Therefore, he teaches us to abhor it and live chastely and respectfully, whether in holy marriage or single life.

 The Seventh Commandment: Do not commit adultery. Matthew 5:27-28 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

In Exodus 20, the Ten Commandments were given, and verse 14 states that adultery should not be committed. Accordingly, regarding adultery, Deuteronomy 22:22-24 states, "If a man is found lying with a married woman, both of them shall die: the man who lay with her and the woman. You shall purge the evil from Israel. If a virgin is betrothed to a man, and a man finds her in the city and lies with her, you shall bring them both out to the gate of your city and stone them to death. The virgin, because she did not cry out while she was in the city, and the man, because he humbled his neighbor's wife. Thus you shall purge the evil from your midst."

Based on this passage, the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery to Jesus, hoping to trip him up. The scribes and Pharisees' purpose in bringing this up wasn't to truly find an answer to the woman's question about adultery, but rather to nitpick Jesus' response.

If Jesus had taken pity on the woman and told her to let her go, they would have criticized Him for claiming to be the Son of God and disobeying the law. On the other hand, if Jesus had told the woman to be stoned, as was required by the law, Israel, then under Roman rule, would have violated Roman law, which prohibited any ethnicity from imposing death sentences. This, too, would have opened the door for Jesus to be attacked.

John 8:6-8 “They said this to test him, so that they might have something to accuse him of. Then Jesus bent down and wrote on the ground with his finger. While they continued asking him questions, he straightened up and said to them, ‘He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.’ Again he bent down and wrote on the ground with his finger.”

The Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus with a trap set to embarrass him, no matter what Jesus answered. Yet, in this precarious situation, Jesus fell to his knees and wrote something on the ground. As they continued to press him for an answer, Jesus stood up and said to them, "Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her."

To the Jewish leaders, this woman caught in adultery seemed like a perfect target for Jesus, a woman guilty of sin and impure. However, by saying, "Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her," Jesus directed their attention away from the woman and toward the Pharisees and scribes who were doing this, and then toward the people present themselves. After a while, beginning with the elders, they left the room one by one.

When they saw the woman's sin, they thought she should be stoned to death, as the law dictated. However, when they heard Jesus' words and saw their own sin, no one dared to declare themselves righteous in their sin, so they had no choice but to leave. Jesus' writing on the ground was to make God's word resonate in their hearts.

Jesus' writing on the ground was a knock on the door of their hearts. Even today, if anyone believes in another Jesus, this constitutes spiritual adultery. This other Jesus includes those who use the name Jesus to do business, those who worship the Jesus who died on the cross as God, and so on. Jesus is knocking on the door of the hearts of his followers.

John 8:10, "When Jesus had lifted up his voice and saw no one but the woman, he said to her, 'Woman, where are those accusers? Has no one condemned you?'" This passage implies that those who hear God's voice do not judge others. Jesus did not come into the world to condemn, but to save humanity from sin. Therefore, Jesus is telling those who have been saved not to fall into sin.

The world condemned the adulterous woman as a sinner, but Jesus forgave her sin without demanding payment for it. The adulterous woman was caught in the act of committing a crime. However, at Jesus's command, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone," everyone left. Although they had not yet been caught at the scene of the crime, they too were sinners, no different from the adulterous woman. Similarly, all people in this world judge the sins of others, yet they are all sinners before God.