Appendix K

Reason:

My job and responsibility takes me away from my wife for long periods of time, and I need to have sexual intercourse regularly. I know that God always meets the need of His people. Having sexual intercourse with other women while I am away from my wife meets that need in my life.

Answer:

This "reason" for committing adultery is not an honest one. A husband disobeys the Word of God by leaving his wife for a longer period of time than his body and mind can handle. Thus he made his own need, which would never have existed at all had he obeyed the Word of God. Then he sinned by adultery to meet the need he himself made by his disobedience. Of course, the same could be true of women who leave their husbands.

The Word of God is very explicit about husbands and wives staying together.

I Corinthians 7:5

Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, That ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, That Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.

The word "defraud" is unclear because it is King James English. A better translation would be "deprive." God's Word says the husband and wife are not to deprive each other sexually except: 1) it be with mutual consent, 2) it be for a specific time and, 3) that it be for the couple to give themselves to fasting and prayer. The reason the couple is not to deprive each other is that "Satan tempt you not for your incontinency."

If a husband is going to leave his wife at all, there is to be mutual consent about the separation. He probably has not agreed with his wife to have other women have sexual intercourse with him while he is away. Even if she did agree to it, that would not make adultery all right with God. God specifically says that the time a husband and wife are to be apart is to be limited, so that Satan cannot tempt them because of their "incontinency," i.e., lack of self control. If a husband and wife are allowing themselves to be away from each other for a longer period of time than either of them can sexually handle, they are already off the Word. In those times their "need" is to get back together, not to commit adultery.