The Fourth Mandate, on Purity and Repentance

1 “I command you,” he said, “to stay pure, and not to let a thought enter your heart about another man’s wife or about immorality or any similar evil deeds, for in doing so you commit a great sin. But remember your own wife always, and you will never go wrong. 2 For if this desire enters your heart, you will go wrong; and if any other evil desire like this arises, you commit sin. For this desire in a servant of God is a great sin; and if a person does this evil, they bring about their own death. 3 So pay attention. Abstain from this desire; for where holiness lives, lawlessness ought not to enter the heart of a righteous person.” 4 I said to him, “Sir, allow me to ask you a few more questions.” “Go ahead,” he said. “Sir,” I said, “if a man who has a wife who is faithful in the Lord finds her in adultery, does the husband sin by living with her?” 5 “As long as he does not know,” he said, “he does not sin; but if the husband knows about her sin, and the wife does not repent but continues in her immorality, and her husband lives with her, he becomes responsible for her sin and an accomplice in her adultery.” 6 “Then what, Sir,” I said, “must the husband do if the wife remains like this?” “Let him divorce her,” he said, “and let the husband remain alone; but if after divorcing his wife he marries another, he also commits adultery.”⁠a 7 “If then, Sir,” I said, “after the wife is divorced, she repents and wants to return to her own husband, should she not be taken back?” 8 “Certainly,” he said, “if the husband does not take her back, he sins and brings great sin on himself; indeed, the one who has sinned and has repented must be taken back, but not many times;⁠b for there is only one repentance for the servants of God. So, because of her repentance, the husband ought not to marry someone else. This is how husband and wife ought to act. 9 It is not only adultery if a person defiles their flesh, but whoever does things like the Gentiles also commits adultery. So if someone continues in such deeds and does not repent, keep away from them, and do not live with them. Otherwise, you too share in their sin. 10 For this reason you were commanded to remain single, whether husband or wife, for in such cases repentance can happen. 11 I,” he said, “am not giving an excuse for the matter to end like this, but saying this so that the sinner may sin no more. But as for their former sin, there is One who can grant healing—He who has authority over all things.”