God Hates Adultery

Adultery is sin Exodus 20:14


Adultery is sexual activity outside of marriage. It is one of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:14, "You shall not commit adultery."
Adultery is primarily a sin against God. That’s not the way most people think of it. Most people think of it as a sin against a spouse. Most people think of it as a sexual sin. Actually, lots of people don’t think of adultery as a sin at all—it is just something they do because of some reason they have chosen.Quote: Shock radio celebrity Howard Stern says, "It’s okay for a man to commit adultery if his wife is ugly." While such a statement should be patently offensive to anyone who hears it, such an attitude or action is outrageously sinful against God.
God says that adultery is a sin against him in the same league with murder, stealing, lying and idolatry. It is a serious affront to God which deeply offends and hurts him. Adultery represents everything that is the opposite of God—breaking promises; lying; stealing what rightfully belongs to someone else; invading an intimate covenant relationship; undermining marriage and family which is the basis of God’s design for human relationships and society. No one can commit adultery without offending and alienating God himself.
Jesus says that anyone who divorces and marries someone else commits adultery.
III. God hates divorce Malachi 2:16
If this is what God says, it is no wonder that he is quoted in the last book of the Old Testament (in Malachi 2:16) saying: "I hate divorce." God hates it when marriages he has blessed split up. God hates it when people end relationships he wanted to stick together. God hates it when families are divided. God hates it when hearts are broken. God hates it when good dreams are shattered. God hates it when innocent people are victimized by others who destroy or abandon a marriage. God hates divorce.
Please don’t misunderstand. God doesn’t hate divorcees. In fact, God is himself a divorcee. He says in Jeremiah 3:8 that he divorced Israel for adultery. God himself was the innocent victim of the sin of adultery. God understands the pain. He has been there. He has personally gone through his own traumatic divorce. He was deeply hurt. Yes, God hates divorce.
No, God never hates people who are divorced. He hates what divorce can do to people. Illustration: It may be compared to cancer, car accidents and alcoholism. God must hate what they do to people as well, but he loves people who are the victims of diseases and accidents and poor personal choices.
This is a very important distinction. If you are divorced, please don’t think God hates you or abandons you or isn’t on your side. Whoever you are, whether you are an innocent victim of someone else’s sin or you are the sinner who has hurt someone else, God loves you. It is the divorce which God hates.

Adultery may result in divorce Matthew 19:3-9
All of these things said, Jesus clearly taught that adultery may result in divorce. It’s not recorded in Luke’s biography of Jesus but you can read Jesus’ words in Matthew 19:3-9.

Some Pharisees came to [Jesus] to test him. They asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?" "Haven’t you read," he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."
"Why then," they asked, "did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?"
Jesus replied, "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery."
Here Jesus gives further explanation of what he said in Luke 16. In Luke 16 he taught the basic principle of God’s law that marriage is permanent. Some people must have asked him, "what if my husband or wife commits adultery? Do I have to stay married even then?" Jesus restated the primary principle and added an exception: "I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery."
Jesus taught that a person whose spouse is unfaithful may divorce that person and remarry. It is Jesus’ one exception. It makes sense. Under the Old Testament code a person who committed adultery was stoned to death and the surviving spouse was widowed and free to remarry. Jesus taught that the stoning is discontinued but the innocent spouse has the right to divorce. It is a right which might not be exercised. The person may forgive and stay married.

Desertion may result in divorce I Corinthians 7:15
Later in the New Testament St. Paul added one more exception to the list in I Corinthians 7. By this time there were many individuals who were becoming Christians but were married to spouses who didn’t believe. Some of them said, "If you don’t renounce your Christian faith I’m leaving." St. Paul taught about what to do in this very difficult situation. He said to let the other person leave. As painful as it is, let the unbeliever leave. In such a case, the Christian may be divorced and remarry.
I Corinthians 7:15 says: " . . . if the unbeliever leaves, let him do so. A believing man or woman is not bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live in peace."
God cares about our relationships. He wants us to love and win unbelievers. But, if it doesn’t work and the partner leaves, God wants us to go on in peace.