When the sin of adultery is committed, what is the first thing that begins to develop in our minds (Christian or non-Christian)? I personally find in my own experiences that too many people in this day and age have tendency to point the finger of shame at the woman per se. Such is no more right than to teach and preach that God is dead or that the Bible is a fraud. Many high moraled individuals, Christians or simply "good people," will agree that the act of premarital sex is wrong, sinful, looked down upon by any person who honors God's commandments, and therefore should not be loosely classified in the category of, "Well, they do love each other." Thus, these types of people will agree that sex outside the bonds of marriage is adultery, as we read in no uncertain terms in Hebrews 13:4: "Marriage is honorable in all. and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." That is fine, my good reader. I will go with you all the way to your grave and my grave both because that is what the inspired word of God instructs. However, can one be right in pointing the sin of adultery at the woman (or girl) only? Just what does God's word have to say about such judging of adultery?

So often, the man develops the outlandish thought that after he has "gotton what he wanted," he can then proceed to straighten up, smile, and in a feeling of accomplishment (?), walk away from the woman as though nothing really happened at all. Friend, if that is your conviction, then you are as wrong as can be. First of all, God is not in any way, shape, form, or fashion, a respecter of persons (Prov. 24:23; Jn. 7:24; Acts 10:34; Rom. 2:11; Eph. 6:9; Col. 3:25; 1 Pet. 1:17; Jas. 2:1) In no way whatsoever is God like such. We can thereby sensibly conclude that God judges all people alike, by His same law, be a person male OR female. If a man commits murder, he stands in the eyes of God condemned just as much as when a woman does likewise. The same thing holds true of theft, drunkenness, profanity, etc. God judges both of the sexes alike who are of an accountable mind to be responsible for their actions. However, look what else the Bible has to say on this matter.

In Galatians 5:19-21, Paul gives mention to a multitude of sins, and the very first sin that is condemned is adultery. "So what?" you may say. Well, loon what Paul said in 1 Cor. 6:15: "Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. What? Know ye not that he (he, my friend-not she-PN) which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, with he, shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but, he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body." It is many times argued the difference between fornication and adultery. Whichever way that you as the reader wish it to be, it is still (fornication and adultery) the act of sexual relationships outside the bonds of marriage, whether an individual is single and engaging in such, or whether the individual is "going out" on his or her marriage spouse. The above verses did not sound one iota to this writer that Paul was condemning the woman only! 1 Cor. 10:8, we see where Paul again says, "Neither let us (us-plural; more than one-PN) commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand." Paul was referring here to the Israelites in Numbers 25. They committed adultery with the daughters of Moab, and just such many met instant death. Was it just the daughters of Moab that died? Hardly, friend. It was the men who were condemned, as well as the women.

I also wonder how many people have recalled the old, trite saying which says, "It takes two to tango?" Have you ever thought it that way? It is just as true as your own mother and father. It takes two to sin. TWO!! Yes. I am remembering homosexuals, but I speak specifically here of man and woman. So often, I hear (and I am sure, not alone) people come out with one-sided remarks such as the following: "Look at that immoral girl; she has a man in her apartment. She does not deserve to breathe. That prostitute! She will surely have hex part in the lake of fire." Yes, dear reader, she will; but so will all the men that commit the act of premarital sex with her. They are not immune to the punishment of the Lord either.

What am I "driving at?" I am not excusing the girl from the act of sexual intercourse outside of the bed of marriage, but I am not excusing the man either. The same expecially goes for God. He will punish both! The next time we take the prejudiced, snobbish idea that a woman is immoral when she engages in adultery, just remember that it takes the man to make the filthy act complete, and that he stands just as guilty and just as condemned in the eyes of God (Rom. 3:10,23). "It takes two to tango" is the old saying, and certainly applies to the act of pre-marital sex. Let us take care lest we become chauvinistic of immoral women, with reference to sexual intercourse outside marriage. Let us keep the record straight!

Truth Magazine XXI: 14, pp. 221-222
April 7, 1977