Lord's Day 33

The seventh commandment addresses our personal and relational purity. Adultery, while usually defined by a sexual intimacy outside the bounds of marriage, also applies to our desires as well  as our speech. As Christians we are united in covenant with God through Jesus Christ, and as  such, we are to live, love, and talk in a way that brings God honor and exemplifies the purity and  Lordship of Christ. To live unchaste, intemperate lives is to break faith and covenant with God and our fellowship with one another. 

Francis Beattie’s commentary on this commandment teaches that “this command requires the  preserving of our own and our neighbor's chastity (“chaste” meaning, restraint or self-control) in  heart, speech, and behavior. This implies chastity in body and mind, affections, words and  conduct, and the preservation of it in others. It requires us to keep a watch over the eyes and  senses, and keeping good company, wearing modest apparel, marriage under proper conditions,  conjugal love and fidelity, diligent labor in our callings, avoiding and resisting all temptations to  the violation of this command. Such are some of the main things which this command requires  to be observed.” 

We live in a culture that seemingly celebrates an unchaste and immoderate lifestyle, seeing self control and modesty as repressive and harmful. Still,  1 Thess. 4:3-4 says, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know who to control his own body in holiness and honor…” The clear teaching of Scripture reveals that, living in faith by the very grace of God, we are called to set aside the old life of sin and disobedience, to leave behind the ways of the flesh which lead to destruction, and to live modest, humble, pure, and holy lives in faithfulness to God.