Ten Commandments (12) - Adultery

The seventh commandment prohibits adultery. However, this command was not enforced, even in Israel.

Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning (Matt 19:8).

Moses did not enforce the law against adultery, because the people’s hearts were hard. There were so many people committing adultery that applying biblical sanctions would have been unacceptable. God does not want his law to be enforced on a society that is opposed to it.

If a law is constantly being disobeyed, the authority of the entire law will be undermined. If adultery were widespread, a law against it would become a joke. Far better, to put the law against adultery on hold until society changed. God has changed his mind; rather he is realistic about what can be achieved by the Law.

A law that is being widely ignored cannot be enforced. This is what Moses understood. Instead of undermining respect for the law by trying to enforce adultery laws that the people did not want, he chose not to enforce them. If Moses showed mercy, we should too. In modern society, adultery is so widespread that enforcing a law against it would be impractical. Adultery laws must be taken off line in our time, due to “hardness of heart”.

This hardness of heart principle means the adultery command cannot be enforced in a society where the majority of people are not Christian and once the majority have been converted adultery laws should be unnecessary.