Adultery is defined as voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and someone other than their lawful spouse. It is repeatedly condemned throughout Scripture as a grievous sin. The Bible speaks clearly about the sanctity of marriage and the wrongfulness of adultery. Here is an overview of some key Bible passages that address adultery:
Exodus 20:14 – “You shall not commit adultery.”
This commandment given to Moses on Mount Sinai plainly states that adultery is forbidden. It is part of God’s universal moral law. Breaking this commandment damages marriages, families, and society as a whole.
Leviticus 20:10 – “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.”
Under the Old Testament law, the penalty for adultery was death for both parties involved. This underscores how seriously God views marital unfaithfulness. While we are no longer under the Mosaic law today, it shows God’s attitude toward adultery.
Proverbs 6:32 – “He who commits adultery lacks sense; he who does it destroys himself.”
The wisdom literature of the Bible warns that adultery is foolishness. It destroys trust in marriages and can tear apart families. The short-term pleasure gives way to long-term pain. Adultery often leads to bitter consequences.
Matthew 5:27-28 – “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
Jesus confronted the external legalism of the Pharisees with an internal look at the heart. He taught that adultery begins with lust in the heart. Faithfulness requires purity of heart and rejection of sexual immorality in thought, word, and deed.
John 8:3-11 – The story of the woman caught in adultery.
When the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery to Jesus and demanded her stoning, Jesus extended grace while also commanding her to “go and sin no more.” He would not condemn her but called for repentance from immorality.
Romans 7:2-3 – “For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.”
Paul explains that the covenant of marriage binds a husband and wife together for life. To break this covenant through adultery is to sin against one’s spouse and against God’s law. Faithfulness is expected until death severs the marriage bond.
1 Corinthians 6:18 – “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.”
Rather than flirt with temptation, followers of Christ must flee from immorality. Sexual sin uniquely impacts our very bodies, Paul says. God created marriage for intimacy and adultery distorts it.
Galatians 5:19 – “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality…”
In Paul’s lists of sins to avoid, sexual immorality is always included. He uses various terms like adultery, fornication, and sensuality to describe unacceptable sexual behavior that corrupts our lives.
Hebrews 13:4 – “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.”
This verse commands honor for the marriage institution and purity in marriage. God promises to judge those who defile the marriage bed through sexual sin. His standards do not change.
James 4:4 – “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
James calls those who are unfaithful to God through compromise with the world’s values spiritual adulterers. We must be faithful to Christ alone. He alone is our bridegroom.
2 Peter 2:14 – “They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children!”
Peter warns against those who seek to lead believers into sexual immorality. Adultery indicates an unsatisfied and unrestrained lust for more. It often preys upon the vulnerable and weak-willed.
Revelation 2:22 – “Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works…”
Jesus rebukes the church in Thyatira for tolerating the false prophetess “Jezebel” who misled people into sexual immorality. Without repentance, great affliction awaits adulterers.
The consistent testimony of Scripture, from Old Testament to New Testament, is that adultery deeply offends God. He designed marriage to reflect His covenant love for His people. Adultery violates God’s plan at immense personal and social cost. Yet God’s amazing grace offers forgiveness to all who humbly repent, turn from sin, and walk in new obedience by His enabling power.
While the Bible roundly condemns adultery, it also provides many examples of God’s redeeming love and mercy toward those who have committed adultery but sincerely repent. Think of King David’s repentance after his adultery with Bathsheba (Psalm 51, 2 Samuel 11-12). Or Hosea pursuing unfaithful Gomer to restore their marriage as a picture of God’s patient love (Hosea 1-3). Our faithful God never condones adultery, but He offers sinners a new beginning.
Adultery often carries painful ongoing consequences even after repentance and forgiveness. God can gradually bring emotional and relational healing, but His perfect will is for sexuality to be contained within the sacred covenant of marriage. His grace empowers Christians to honor marriage vows and reject the path of adultery.
Through Christ we find power to overcome lustful desires that lead to adultery. We must guard our eyes and hearts, flee temptation, and “make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (Romans 13:14). Husbands and wives must nurture their relationship, keeping their marriage bed pure out of love for God and each other.
Marriage is sacred because it pictures Christ’s relationship with the church (Ephesians 5:22-33). Adultery strikes at the heart of that God-given institution. The Bible repeatedly warns against going down that destructive road. When adultery has occurred, God’s grace brings forgiveness, healing, and new beginnings for all who repent and turn to Him.