Adultery is pretty commonly understood. Almost everyone knows what it means. It involves having sexual relations with another man’s wife or husband. It is, at its very essence, unfaithfulness. It involves lying and deception as well. And it involves some very serious consequences.
Adultery also has a “spiritual” dynamic. It does not have to be a physical act. Even lusting after (earnestly desiring to have sexual relations with another) one who is not your spouse is defined as adultery in scripture. It is just as much a sin as the physical act.
There is another dimension to this problem. You can commit adultery against YAHWEH Himself - if indeed you are one of His followers, a Believer. This happens when you in any manner act “unfaithfully” to Him. It really involves giving yourself to something other than YAHWEH
alone. It can take many forms. Interestingly, He considers those who believe in Him to be "married" to Him (the Bride of Christ, etc.)
He has told us He is to be the number one priority in our lives, as believers. It's His will, His desire for us. We are to honor Him, worship Him, serve Him, and love Him above everything else in our lives. Whenever we fail to do His will we are committing adultery against Him.
Scripture Verses on Adultery:
Exodus 20:14: You shall not commit adultery.
Leviticus 20:10: And the man that commits adultery with another man’s wife, even he that commits adultery with his neighbour’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
Proverbs 6:32: But whosoever commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding: he that does it destroyeth his own soul.
Jeremiah 3:8: And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also. 9 And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks.
Jeremiah 5:7: How shall I pardon you for this? Your children have forsaken Me, and sworn by them that are not gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots’ houses.
Jeremiah 7:9: Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom you know not; 10 And come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?
Jeremiah 23:14: I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem a horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none returns from his wickedness: they are all of them unto Me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.
Jeremiah 29:23: Because they have committed villany in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbours’ wives, and have spoken lying words in My name, which I have not commanded them; even I know, and am a witness, says Yahweh.
Ezekiel 23:37: That they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands, and with their idols have they committed adultery, and have also caused their sons, whom they bore unto Me, to pass for them through the fire, to devour them.
Matthew 5:27: You have heard that it was said by them of old time, You shall not commit adultery: 28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.
Matthew 5:32: But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, except for the cause of fornication, causes her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced commits adultery.
Matthew 15:19: For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: 20 these are the things which defile a man.
Matthew 19:9: And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, commits adultery: and whosoever marries her which is put away commits adultery.
Mark 10:12: And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.
Mark 10:19: You knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honor your father and mother.
Romans 2:22: You that say a man should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?
Romans 13:9: You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, You shall not covet; and if there exists any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, You shall love your neighbour as yourself.
1 Corinthinians 6.9: Know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of YAHWEH? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of YAHWEH.
Galatians 5:19: Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21 envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of YAHWEH.
Hebrews 13.4: Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers YAHWEH will judge.
Take time to examine your life. Are you guilty of this sin? If so, it's time for confession and repentance.