Do not commit adultery. (Exodus 20:14 CSB [Cf. Deut. 5:18 & Matt. 5:27-30])

The framers of the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Longer and Shorter Catechisms convened as called together by Parliament at Westminster Abbey in London between 1643 and 1648. Their exposition of the Ten Commandments, included in each of the Catechisms, asks questions for each commandment considering both the positive duties set forth in the commandment and the sins forbidden by the commandment. Let’s look at the seventh commandment as a case study using the Larger Catechism.

138. What are the duties required in the seventh commandment? The duties required in the seventh commandment are, chastity in body, mind, affections, words, and behavior; and the perseveration of it in ourselves and others; watchfulness over the eyes and all the senses; temperance, keeping of chaste company, modesty in apparel; marriage by those have not the gift of continency, conjugal love, and cohabitation; diligent labor in all our callings; shunning all occasions of uncleanness, and resisting temptations thereunto.

139. What are the sins forbidden in the seventh commandment? The sins forbidden in the seventh commandment, besides the neglect of the duties required, are, adultery, fornication, rape, incest, sodomy, and all unnatural lusts; all unclean imaginations, thoughts, purposes, and affections; all corrupt or filthy communications, or listening thereunto; wanton looks; impudent or light behavior; immodest apparel; prohibiting of lawful, and dispensing with unlawful marriages; allowing, tolerating, keeping of stews, and resorting to them; entangling vows of single life; undue delay of marriage; having more wives or husbands than one at the same time; unjust divorce or desertion; idleness, gluttony, drunkenness, unchaste company; lascivious songs, books, pictures, dancing, stage plays; all other provocations to, or acts of uncleanness, either in ourselves or others.

Bottom line: we are called to purity in thought, speech, and conduct. The Westminster divines display a formidable grasp of biblical theology and the big picture of the consistency of Scripture. It seems they could see the temptations and the moral and societal upheavals of the twenty-first century in plain sight almost four hundred years prior. We would do well to study and to heed this gift they have bestowed to us. The Westminster Standards were providentially written for such a time as this.