Exodus 20:14 -- Adultery

Exodus 20:14 Do not commit adultery.

This is very cut and dry.  Do not commit adultery.  Do not forsake your spouse by being with someone else, whether in thought or deed.

Leviticus 20:10 If a man commits adultery with a married woman—if he commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife—both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.

Again, breaking this commandment leads to death.  The ones who committed the acts must die.

Proverbs 6:27 Can a man embrace fire
and his clothes not be burned?
28 Can a man walk on burning coals
without scorching his feet?
29 So it is with the one who sleeps with
another man’s wife;
no one who touches her will go unpunished.

This is what Solomon had to say about adultery.  Sleeping with another man's wife is like embracing fire and getting burned.  It is dangerous.  You will get punished.  Proverbs goes on to say:

Proverbs 6:32 The one who commits adultery lacks sense;
whoever does so destroys himself.
33 He will get a beating and dishonor,
and his disgrace will never be removed.

You have no sense and you will be disgraced.  You destroy yourself when you commit adultery.

Matthew 5:28 But I tell you, everyone who looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Matthew is saying here that just looking at a women with the desire to sleep with her is just the same as actually committing the act itself.  You have had her in your mind, so how is that different than actually do it?  God knows your heart and your intentions when you think them.  Many people praise the fact that they did not commit some particular sin, but fail to mention that they thought about wanting to do it all day long.  Like our pastor said concerning adultery in one of his sermons: "A man came home and told his wife, 'you would be proud of me today, honey.  I did not commit adultery, but man I really wanted to!'"

Matthew 5:32 But I tell you, everyone who divorces his wife, except in a case of sexual immorality, causes her to commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

and

Matthew 19:9 And I tell you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”

Here is states that if a divorced person remarries, then they are committing adultery.  I wonder how many Christians read this today?  There are many people who claimed to be Christian when they divorced and then later remarried, for reasons that were not considered sexual immorality.  Do those Christians know they are committing adultery?

Adultery is rampant in our culture.  A lot of times it is swept under the rug, or whispered about behind ones back instead of confronted and dealt with.  Divorce is out of control, especially within the church.  If we truly loved God and our fellow man like the Bible says we ought, then I think the divorce rate among Christians would drop drastically.  We, as a society, had a hard time understanding sacrificial love, that is necessary to keep a long term relationship going.  You can't be in a healthy marriage if all you worry about is yourself and how you can be happy.  There must be concern for the other person involved.  You must love them so much that you are willing to sacrifice some of your wants and desires to make them happy or feel loved or satisfied.  Marriage is not a one way street.

The Bible also talks of adultery in a much deeper sense when referring to Israel's relationship with God.

Jeremiah 3:6 In the days of King Josiah the Lord asked me, “Have you seen what unfaithful Israel has done? She has ascended every high hill and gone under every green tree to prostitute herself there. 7 I thought: After she has done all these things, she will return to Me. But she didn’t return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. 8 I observed that it was because unfaithful Israel had committed adultery that I had sent her away and had given her a certificate of divorce. Nevertheless, her treacherous sister Judah was not afraid but also went and prostituted herself. 9 Indifferent to her prostitution, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees. 10 Yet in spite of all this, her treacherous sister Judah didn’t return to Me with all her heart—only in pretense.”

Both Israel and Judah have given themselves to foreign gods and worshiped them.  They have made their idols out of stone and wood and worshiped them instead of the on true God.  They have betrayed God and followed after other gods.  As we know from the New Testament, Christ is our groom and us, as the church is his bride.  We must remember the bride of Christ is both Christ and the chosen Jews.  For any of us to follow after other gods or idols is like us committing adultery against God.