The 7th Commandment: Do Not Commit Adultery

Summary

This conversation explores the seventh commandment — two Hebrew words usually translated “do not commit adultery” — by asking why marriage matters so much that God would protect it this way. It traces the command back to Genesis, where humanity images God by being different yet united, and where a man and woman become “one flesh.” It then follows that thread to the Apostle Paul, who reads marriage as a picture of God’s relentless love for his people, concluding that the command is ultimately a charge to honor and protect that bond.

Key Points

The Command and the Image of God

• The command is two Hebrew words built on a root meaning to have sex with someone who is married to another person.
• That raises the question of why this matters, and the answer reaches back to Genesis 1:27, where “image of God” is paired with “male and female.”
• One way humanity images God is by being genuinely different and yet also one — unity that doesn’t erase difference.

Becoming One Flesh

• In the Eden story there is a single human, and God says it is “not good” for the human to be alone, promising to make an ‘ezer kenegdo — a rescuing ally who corresponds to the human, matching not by being identical but by being precisely different.
• God puts the human into a deep sleep, takes a side, and the one becomes two; waking, the human recognizes “bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh.”
• The narrator steps in (Genesis 2:24) to explain that this is why a man leaves his parents and clings to his wife, and the two become one flesh — language for a deep family bond.

The Great Mystery Marriage Symbolizes

• Marriage is one of Scripture’s main metaphors for God’s covenant with Israel, which is why Paul treats marriage as having cosmic weight.
• In Ephesians, Paul says husbands love their wives as their own bodies — meditating on the “one flesh” of Eden — and then turns to the Messiah’s love for the church, calling it a “great mystery.”
• Paul reads the two becoming one as ultimately a picture of Jesus and his people, God and humanity becoming one — marriage as a sign of God’s loyal pursuit of his creatures.
• Flipped around, the command becomes a charge to honor and protect a marriage, since it is the unique, demanding place a couple learns to love each other fully — so don’t shatter another couple’s marriage to satisfy your own desire.

Notable Quotes

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cling to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24)

“This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” (Ephesians 5:32)