Merriam-Webster's Dictionary defines adultery as "voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and someone other than that person's current spouse or partner".
Under the Law given to Moses, any person that committed adultery was to be stoned (Leviticus 20:10, John 8:1-11). God has always taken marriage seriously and always intended it to be just between one man and one woman (Gen. 2:24, Matt. 19:4-6).
Why did God feel this way? After all, not every commandment from God in the Old Testament was punishable by death. As I have stated in previous lessons, everything on Earth has both a natural and spiritual parallel. God considers Israel to be his wife (Jeremiah 31:32, Hosea 2:19-20) just as the Church is the bride of Christ (2 Cor. 11:2, Rev. 19:7-9). Adultery, whether spiritual or physical, is the dishonoring of the covenant created by God Himself.
Since spiritual adultery will be covered in greater detail later, I am only going to discuss adultery between a husband and wife in this lesson.
One of the most famous stories in the Bible is the story of King David and Bathsheba found 2 Samuel 11. In this story, King David became smitten with this woman and they had an affair. Bathsheba got pregnant, so they came up with a plan for her to have sex with Uriah (her husband) to pass the child off as his. However, Uriah would not disgrace himself by sleeping with his wife while his men were in battle fighting. When that plan failed, King David had Uriah moved to the front lines in order to make sure that he died in battle. Sadly the plan worked and the innocent Uriah died because of the web of atrocities that came about due to adultery.
If a person spends five minutes searching for news articles on adultery, they will find a plethora of reports of adulterers attempting to kill their spouses. There is something else that happens when a man or woman commits adultery that is far more common than murder: contracting an STD.
In Psalm 38, King David was crying to God over the mistakes that he had made. Look at verse 7 specifically: "For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh". It would appear that the most famous king in Israel's history contracted an STD from Bathsheba (which would imply that she probably had cheated on Uriah with other men which is often the case with adultery). Two verses earlier, David said "my wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness" and in verse 11, he makes it known that he cannot hide this STD from his friends. Biblical scholars tend to believe that King David contracted syphilis given the symptoms described in this Psalm and other symptoms found in 2 Samuel and 1 Kings.
Regardless of what occurred, the Bible makes it perfectly clear what can happen when a man or woman commits adultery. Is it any wonder why in both the Old and New Testaments, people are told to flee from all forms of promiscuity? Jesus said that adultery begins in the heart (Matt. 5:28, 15:19). In other words, adultery doesn't "just happen".
Marriage is sacred in God's eyes! Adultery is never just the "innocent fling" that is shown on television. It ruins marriages, destroys families, and kills the body.
Next work of the flesh: fornication