What does 'Thou shalt not commit adultery' mean?
- Thread starter Sonnet
- Start date
It means to have relations with someone who isnt your spouse
It means to lust after someone who isnt your spouse
It can also mean something spiritual:
What is spiritual adultery in the Bible? Worshipping other gods, idols, and in ways God hasn't called for. It's in the Bible, Ezekiel 23:37, NKJV. "For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols, and even sacrificed their sons whom they bore to Me, passing them through the fire, to devour them"
It means to lust after someone who isnt your spouse
It can also mean something spiritual:
What is spiritual adultery in the Bible? Worshipping other gods, idols, and in ways God hasn't called for. It's in the Bible, Ezekiel 23:37, NKJV. "For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols, and even sacrificed their sons whom they bore to Me, passing them through the fire, to devour them"
Sonnet
New member
Why, then, wasn't David stoned to death?
Haven't you read the bible on it? It says what happened there.
Sonnet
New member
I have yes. He wasn't stoned but no reason is given.
Sonnet
New member
...but the original use (Exodus 2014) would require a definition before Christ's wouldn't it?
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David didn't commit adultery according to the law of the land in his day.
Bathsheba was no longer married when David had relations with her. Her husband died in battle and she was free to take a a new husband.
Sonnet
New member
So having sex with someone other than your spouse isn't adultery?
So your definition of adultery is...what?
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The only reason that the morality of biblical humanity such as David would be defended in its utter failure as unfailing would be to defend that mankind is moral. We are not. Without guidelines and assistance, mankind divides into three main groups.
Group one: Those that believe all humanity to be equal.
Group two: Those that believe all humanity to be unequal.
Group III: Those that are uncertain and continually evaluating the matter.
Jesus distinguished these groups extremely clearly. He was among the first group. The second group persecuted Him for expressing the ideas of the first group. His presence divided group III like a sword into the first or second group.
His words still do divide the third group. People from group two still try to claim Jesus was part of group two and speak with His words on His behalf.
The bottom line is that all humanity is bound in equality by imperfection. It either admits so, or ravenously denies it and comes up with complex systems to deny equality.
In the eyes of God, it all comes down to Love and Hate.
Which only leaves several questions...
Does God swing a sword of Love or a sword of Hate?
Is God a God of inequality and oppression, or a God of equality and Love?
Is God a God of Saccrifice or a God of Mercy?
Is the Justice of God blind to the heart, or illuminated with omniscience?
Does God distinguish by what we see, or what is within the heart, soul and mind?
Did He die for all people, or simply a small "elite" group?
Is salvation based on what we do and know, or what God has done and accomplished?
Group one: Those that believe all humanity to be equal.
Group two: Those that believe all humanity to be unequal.
Group III: Those that are uncertain and continually evaluating the matter.
Jesus distinguished these groups extremely clearly. He was among the first group. The second group persecuted Him for expressing the ideas of the first group. His presence divided group III like a sword into the first or second group.
His words still do divide the third group. People from group two still try to claim Jesus was part of group two and speak with His words on His behalf.
The bottom line is that all humanity is bound in equality by imperfection. It either admits so, or ravenously denies it and comes up with complex systems to deny equality.
In the eyes of God, it all comes down to Love and Hate.
Which only leaves several questions...
Does God swing a sword of Love or a sword of Hate?
Is God a God of inequality and oppression, or a God of equality and Love?
Is God a God of Saccrifice or a God of Mercy?
Is the Justice of God blind to the heart, or illuminated with omniscience?
Does God distinguish by what we see, or what is within the heart, soul and mind?
Did He die for all people, or simply a small "elite" group?
Is salvation based on what we do and know, or what God has done and accomplished?
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You mean no one brought charges against Him (2 witnesses) which is what was required by the law.
http://apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=6&article=652
And before you object again, see Jesus and the woman brought in adultery, the same thing happened, no witnesses left and both people (the man as well as the woman) wasnt charged- only one was. The law also required both be charged as well as there being 2 witnesses.
Did you miss what the law actually says on it when you read the bible on it?
I'll repeat, "David didn't commit adultery according to the law of the land in his day."
God's very first instruction to Adam was to be fruitful and increase. A king could afford to have more than one wife in David's day and time.
David was not the first or only man to have more than one wife and Bathsheba's husband was dead. She was not married. Neither David nor Bathsheba committed adultery according to the law at that time.
A man could have more than one wife but a woman could only have one husband at a time.
In the NT a man could not serve in an ordained office if he had more than one wife.
Times change.
marhig
Well-known member
I think David did commit adultery, he was sleeping with Bathsheba whilst uriah was still alive. What is that if it's not adultery? And not only did he commit adultery, but after doing it, he then contrived to get her husband killed my putting him at the front of the battle when he was weak. Uriah's heart was right before God and he was loyal to David yet he was treated so badly.
God did forgive Davids sins when he repented, but he did still suffer terribly for committing those sins, including losing his first born son!
2 Samuel 12
And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul; And I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things. Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.
And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die. Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die.
David was the king, he had a responsibly to show the right way to live before others. And God's people have that responsibility too. We have to live right before God and others, and follow Jesus showing the right example. The stronger we are in God, the more we know and the more responsibility we have.
Once we know the truth and we know God, and when we carry on sinning wilfully, God will punish us because we're not ignorant and we know right from wrong.
David was of the elect, with a preordained purpose- instead of the penalty of death, God killed his son.
In reality, they wouldn't have stoned him to death anyway, as he was too precious to the Jews. David rather was ashamed, and tried to conceal it by having Bathsheba's husband sent to die in the front lines of battle.
But even with that, God spared him to continue his kingship.
The only adultery that breaks the marriage covenant is physical adultery. That was the case all through biblical history, and did not change with Jesus.
What Jesus is illustrating is that one has betrayed their heart in looking upon another with lust, which doesn't desecrate one's marriage but rather one's soul.
St. Augustine edifies this, teaching ultimately that when a person lusts, the soul loses control of the body and, being separated, is literally plunged by demons.
In marriage, however, two are made into one flesh, so the volition of sex is holy.
Please read the story again.
Sonnet
New member
Really interesting thanks Angel4Truth -but David had multiple wives which would have been known.
Sonnet
New member
So this leaves 'adultery' meaning what exactly?
Sonnet
New member
So David committed adultery when he took his second wife and was never reproved for doing so?
Sonnet
New member
so don't commit adultery but have sex with with more than one spouse?