FOR THE PROTECTION OF MARRIAGE, FAMILY AND SOCIETY
The 7th Commandment: "You shall not commit adultery."

When the Lord Jesus Christ declared that "anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart," (Matthew 5:28) he showed that the battle for the family begins in our hearts, minds and imagination. "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man 'unclean'." (Matthew 15:19-20)

The first step, then, is to recognize and confess to God that we are sinners, that the root cause of the problem lies within ourselves at the core of our being.

"Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death." (James 1:14-15) This death is described as follows: "Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders… will inherit the kingdom of God." (1 Corinthians 6:9) "But the cowardly, the unbelieving… the sexually immoral… their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulphur." (Rev. 21:8)

We need to come to Christ in repentance and faith. By His perfect sacrifice we are saved from God's anger and eternal punishment.

"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God." (Romans 5:1-2)
Therefore, God tells us "to offer [our] bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to [Him]." We are to regard this as our "spiritual worship," and not to "conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of [our] minds." (Romans 12:2)
We must "take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." (2 Corinthians 10:5)
For "the mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so." (Rom. 8:6-7)

God is a Spirit (John 4:24) and His Law is spiritual. (Romans 7:14) So, anyone who is spiritually "dead" is in a state of hostility towards God and His commandments. Only when he receives new spiritual life does he receive a new attitude to God's Holy Law:

"This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds." (Hebrews 10:16)

The Apostle Paul exhorts all Christians:

"You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness." (Ephesians 4:22-24)

Many people fail to understand how powerfully our thinking affects our actions. Sinful thoughts cause sinful deeds. Evil ideas arouse evil desires and lead to evil deeds. Many do not recognise that the anti-God ideology taught in state schools and the anti-marriage propaganda promoted by the mass media pave the way for every sexual crime imaginable. When people accept the idea that there is no God and no absolute Law over man, then everything becomes permissible - everything!

Therefore the encouragement to adulterous thoughts, desires, and actions should be treated as a serious crime in a Christian civilisation. If a society wants to be culturally vibrant, healthy, and strong, it must not tolerate pornography in any form. For the promotion of immorality is an act of revolutionary warfare against God and against the family, the central institution of society.

The Seventh Commandment "You shall not commit adultery," (Exodus 20:14) does not only forbid adultery, but it forbids all the transgressions that bring chaos to God's order for society. It outlaws unchastity before marriage, incest, sodomy, bestiality, rape, prostitution and pornographic incite-ment to sin. The Bible lists grave penalties, and gives countless rules of conduct, e.g.:-

ON PREMARITAL RELATIONS:
"If [on marriage] no proof of the girl's virginity can be found, she shall be brought to the door of her father's house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. She has done a disgraceful thing in Israel by being promiscuous… You must purge the evil from Israel." (Deuteronomy 22:21)
"Let us behave decently, as in the daytime… not in sexual immorality and debauchery." (Rom. 13:13)
"The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body." (1Cor.6:13)
"They have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. You, however, did not come to know Christ that way." (Ephesians 4:20)
"If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" (2 Cor. 5:17)
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." (Matthew 5:8)

ON HOMOSEXUALITY:
"If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads." (Lev. 20:13)

ON RAPE: "If… a man happens to meet a girl pledged to be married and rapes her, only the man who has done this shall die. Do nothing to the girl; she has committed no sin deserving death. This case is like that of someone who attacks and murders his neighbour." (Deut. 22:25-26)

ON INCEST: "If a man sleeps with his father's wife, he has dishonoured his father. Both the man and the woman must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads. If a man sleeps with his daughter-in-law, both of them must be put to death. What they have done is a perversion, their blood will be on their own heads... If a man marries both a woman and her mother, it is wicked. If a man marries his sister… and they have sexual relations, it is a disgrace." (Lev. 20:11,12,14,17)

ON PROSTITUTION: "Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body?" (1 Corinthians 6:13-16)

ON BESTIALITY: "Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion." Leviticus 18:23) "If a man has sexual relations with an animal, he must be put to death, and you must kill the animal." (Leviticus 20:15)

GOD SAYS (Romans 6:12):

DO NOT LET SIN REIGN IN YOUR MORTAL BODY SO THAT YOU OBEY ITS EVIL DESIRES. DO NOT OFFER THE PARTS OF YOUR BODY TO SIN, AS INSTRUMENTS OF WICKEDNESS, BUT RATHER OFFER YOURSELVES TO GOD, AS THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN BROUGHT FROM DEATH TO LIFE… FOR SIN SHALL NOT BE YOUR MASTER!