7th Commandment

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Nate13

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My question pertains to what the 7th commandment (“You shall not commit adultery”) encompasses. I’ve seen this commandment taken to basically mean “you shall not break your wedding vows”, but I have yet to see any real proof for that. I know that just summing it up to mean “don’t cheat on your spouse” also can’t be right though. The Israelite men who received the law were having sex with more than one woman which also confuses things although they held women to the standard we have today. Can anyone shed some light on this for me as to what this commandment actually entails for us and what God really meant for it to mean?
 
Jesus himself gave clarity to this commendmant in Matthew 5:27-28: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart."

What it means is that you should not deliberately think of anyone other than your spouse in a sexual manner. For singles, this basically means they shouldn’t think of anyone in a sexual manner. For married people, it means they should only think of their spouse in a sexual manner, not anyone else.

It doesnt mean that you shouldn’t find other people sexually attractive. What ot means is that you shouldn’t entertain and dwell on those thoughts. To have sexual thoughts is natural, but to dwell on them and turn a thought into lust is sinful and robs the object of your lust of their proper dignity.

That’s my understanding.
 
underacloud said:
Jesus himself gave clarity to this commendmant in Matthew 5:27-28: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart."

What it means is that you should not deliberately think of anyone other than your spouse in a sexual manner. For singles, this basically means they shouldn’t think of anyone in a sexual manner. For married people, it means they should only think of their spouse in a sexual manner, not anyone else.

It doesnt mean that you shouldn’t find other people sexually attractive. What to means is that you shouldn’t entertain and dwell on those thoughts. To have sexual thoughts is natural, but to dwell on them and turn a thought into lust is sinful and robs the object of your lust of their proper dignity.

That’s my understanding.
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Yeah I understand this but I still feel this is somewhat of a narrow view of it. I’d also point out that Jesus didn’t specifically state he was talking about married men in his statement. He said “anyone” who looks upon a woman lustfully has committed adultery. This implies you don’t have to be married to commit adultery which makes me even more inclined to believe there is a lot more to this commandment then meets the eye.
 
Yes, I agree that it doesn’t merely apply to married people, as I outlined in my post. I’m not sure what more you think it entails. More than what I suggested in my post? I would have thought my interpretation was about as broad as it can get.
 
underacloud said:
Yes, I agree that it doesn’t merely apply to married people, as I outlined in my post. I’m not sure what more you think it entails. More than what I suggested in my post? I would have thought my interpretation was about as broad as it can get.
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My bad I missed the part where you talked about single people, I’m getting sleepy 🙂 I guess the next question I would have then would be what does this imply in a physical sense? I have seen people include fornication, masturbation, and contraception as falling under being against the 7th commandment. Does it make sense to do so?
 
wjp984 said:
I thought the seventh commandment was thou shall not steal.
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Google says that is the eight commandment haha. Regardless everyone should be able to figure out which one I’m talking about 🙂
 
Ah, I see where you are going with this now.

From the church’s perspective, yes, yes, and yes. All three are covered directly or implicitly by the seventh commandment. The detailed analysis of each is quite involved, though, especially contraception.

Fornication is the easiest. It’s having sex with someone who is not your spouse. Fornication has always been understood to be covered by the seventh commandment.

Masturbation is another step. It’s certainly wrong if it involves images or thoughts of other people. If it doesn’t, it is still understood to be wrong as it is a misuse of sex. Any form of sex that occurs outside of marriage is understood to be covered implicitly by this commandment.

Contrception is the most difficult to address, as evidenced by the myriad discussions on this forum about it. In short, it is taken to deprove sex of it’s purpose within marriage. Sex should be unitive and procreative, and contraception deprives sex of its procreative potential, and is thus a sin against this commandment. That’s the basic premise.

My explanations should not be taken to represent the complex theology that lies behind these, but just a quick snapshot.
 
underacloud said:
Ah, I see where you are going with this now.

From the church’s perspective, yes, yes, and yes. All three are covered directly or implicitly by the seventh commandment. The detailed analysis of each is quite involved, though, especially contraception.

Fornication is the easiest. It’s having sex with someone who is not your spouse. Fornication has always been understood to be covered by the seventh commandment.

Masturbation is another step. It’s certainly wrong if it involves images or thoughts of other people. If it doesn’t, it is still understood to be wrong as it is a misuse of sex. Any form of sex that occurs outside of marriage is understood to be covered implicitly by this commandment.

Contrception is the most difficult to address, as evidenced by the myriad discussions on this forum about it. In short, it is taken to deprove sex of it’s purpose within marriage. Sex should be unitive and procreative, and contraception deprives sex of its procreative potential, and is thus a sin against this commandment. That’s the basic premise.

My explanations should not be taken to represent the complex theology that lies behind these, but just a quick snapshot.
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Ok thanks this is a start. Hopefully someone will come along that can break down exactly why each of those is considered to be held up under the 7th commandment. I kind of see how it fits, but I want to be able to break it down and describe it to someone else should the need arise because right now I would have a hard time doing so.
 
Nate13 said:
Ok thanks this is a start. Hopefully someone will come along that can break down exactly why each of those is considered to be held up under the 7th commandment. I kind of see how it fits, but I want to be able to break it down and describe it to someone else should the need arise because right now I would have a hard time doing so.
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Hi Nate. First things first. “You shall not commit adultery” is the sixth commandment. “You shall not steal” is the seventh.

Take a look at his link, as the Catechism has an entire section on the commandment along with reference links at the bottom. I think this will guide you to the answers you are seeking. If not, come on back, but at least you will have some of an understanding of this from a Catholic perspective.

scborromeo.org/ccc/p3s2c2a6.htm
 
Nate13 said:
Google says that is the eight commandment haha. Regardless everyone should be able to figure out which one I’m talking about 🙂
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I thought the 8th Commandment is not to bear false witness against neighbors. I am confused. However, I think ther are two different versions of the Bible that each have two different versions of the commandments.
 
As to the numbering of the commandments, it is typically different from Protestants than Catholics. Most protestants (excepting Lutherans and Church of England) number them with out 9nth and 10th combined and our 1st one split into two. So all of the others are moved down one (eg. our 6th commandment against adultry is the 7th commandment to protestants and jews). If you didn’t know the numbering and tried to number 10 of them from the book of Detueronomy, you would possibly come up with the Catholic version; if you tried to number 10 of them from the book of Exodus, you would possibly come up with the protestant version.

Certainly one place, IMO, that is simple tradition with a small t; as both versions contain it all.

Wikipedia shows the various numberings side by side under the section “Divisions according to different religions”:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Commandments

I remember visiting a priest once in his house and he had the ten commandments beautifully done and hanging up on the wall of his study. When I looked closely, they were numbered wrong. I thought, my gosh do we have to change everything. But he told me it was a gift from the neighboring Baptist Church to him, and then explained the difference and showed me the two texts in the Bible and how it came about.
 
Perhaps you just need to step back and understand what the 10 Commandments are really about. Sins aren’t just things that are on an arbitrary forbidden list. They are things that do genuine harm to our souls, degrade our ability to give and receive love.

The commandment isn’t just to refrain from adultery (with the resultant thousands of loophole seekers looking to excuse their own lustful tastes). The underlying meaning of the commandment is for people to live out their sexuality as God intended it: a gift meant to be re-gifted to your lifelong spouse. A physical manifestation of the union of two persons so profound that it holds the godlike power to bring forth new life. I say ‘godlike’ because it is the humans most fully manifest the “image and likeness of God” spoken of in Genesis. That’s heady stuff, not merely the playground of the bored and spoiled that our culture today sees sex as.
 
manualman said:
Perhaps you just need to step back and understand what the 10 Commandments are really about. Sins aren’t just things that are on an arbitrary forbidden list. They are things that do genuine harm to our souls, degrade our ability to give and receive love.

The commandment isn’t just to refrain from adultery (with the resultant thousands of loophole seekers looking to excuse their own lustful tastes). The underlying meaning of the commandment is for people to live out their sexuality as God intended it: a gift meant to be re-gifted to your lifelong spouse. A physical manifestation of the union of two persons so profound that it holds the godlike power to bring forth new life. I say ‘godlike’ because it is the humans most fully manifest the “image and likeness of God” spoken of in Genesis. That’s heady stuff, not merely the playground of the bored and spoiled that our culture today sees sex as.
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Haha I understand all that, but I found it intriguing when I saw these sins listed under that commandment on a confession guide. I wanted to know if there was something to it or whether they just did it as a way to group sins haha. I think most Christians take the commandments very seriously, but anything outside of those becomes kind of game to a point where if you can’t find it word for word in the Bible then it isn’t for sure wrong. I think be able to describe why these sins would fall under the 6th commandment (forgive me for screwing the numbering up) would add weight to showing others who are caught up in this trap why they are wrong.
 
Nate13 said:
Haha I understand all that, but I found it intriguing when I saw these sins listed under that commandment on a confession guide. I wanted to know if there was something to it or whether they just did it as a way to group sins haha. I think most Christians take the commandments very seriously, but anything outside of those becomes kind of game to a point where if you can’t find it word for word in the Bible then it isn’t for sure wrong. I think be able to describe why these sins would fall under the 6th commandment (forgive me for screwing the numbering up) would add weight to showing others who are caught up in this trap why they are wrong.
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further admonitions occur, particularly in the OT, against the immorality of adultery.

In Israel’s wisdom literature, Proverbs uses the figure of dame folly, the personification of unrighteous living is seen as a prostitute. She acts a a ‘foil’ to lady wisdom who can lead the young man on the path of righteousness and the fear of the LORD.

In the prophets, there is a spiritual adultery by the nations of Israel and Judah - which also happen to involve cultic fertility worship. God says Israel has gone awhoring after these foreign gods.

Hosea is a special case point. The parallel between Gomer his prostitute wife and Israel is undeniable. Even after further continued adultery, Hosea is commanded to redeem her and bring her home.

in sum, the OT here uses the 6th commandment to actually relate the activity to the bounds of the 1st commandment.

:cool:
 
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