The Sixth Commandment

The commandments that follow are clarified by the explanations of the earlier ones, since they all instruct us to avoid harming our neighbor and are arranged with remarkable logic. They begin with the security of a person's own life. Next comes what is closest and most precious to him: his wife, who is one flesh and blood with him. No greater injury can be done to a man's household than harm coming to him in this second way. The commandment gives an explicit prohibition against dishonoring a neighbor's wife. Adultery is singled out in particular because among the Jewish people marriage was a social obligation. Young people were encouraged to marry as early as possible. Virginity was not especially celebrated, prostitutes and libertines were never tolerated, and as a result, no form of sexual sin was more common than the breaking of the marriage vow.

But since we live in an age of shameful and widespread moral corruption in every form, this commandment is directed against every kind of sexual sin, by whatever name it goes. Not only the act itself is forbidden, but also every impulse and temptation that leads toward it. The heart, the lips, and the whole body must remain pure, giving no occasion, no assistance, and no encouragement to sexual immorality. Beyond that, we are called to restrain wrongdoing, protect the vulnerable, and step in where help is needed. We are to support our neighbors in preserving their honor. When we fail to do this and could have prevented the wrong, or when we simply look the other way in indifference, we become just as guilty as the person who committed the act. In short, what this commandment requires is personal purity and a genuine effort to secure it for our neighbors as well, and God established this commandment to protect every marriage.

Since this commandment draws our attention specifically to marriage, we should take careful note of how highly God regards and commends married life, given that He confirms and protects it with a dedicated command. He affirmed it in the Fourth Commandment, saying: "You shall honor your father and your mother." Here, however, as I noted, He preserves and protects it directly. He therefore calls us to honor, guard, and uphold marriage as a divinely ordained and blessed institution. It is significant that He established it as the first of all human institutions, and with that purpose in mind He created man and woman as distinct from one another. God's intention, as is clear, was not that they should live in wickedness, but that they should be faithful to each other, have children, and raise them to His glory. For this reason, God blessed marriage above every other institution and ordered everything on earth to serve and flow from it, so that it would be richly and abundantly provided for. Married life, then, is no trivial matter or subject for idle curiosity; it is a glorious institution and the expression of God's deepest seriousness. It matters enormously to God that, in the ongoing struggle against Satan and evil, people are raised up who serve the world and lead it toward a knowledge of God, a flourishing life, and all the virtues.

For this reason, I have always taught that we should neither despise marriage nor treat it carelessly, as the shortsighted world and the hypocritical clergy do. Instead, we should see it in the light of God's Word, by which it is adorned and made holy, so that it is not merely placed alongside other estates but set above and before all of them, whether those of emperor, prince, bishop, or anyone else. Whatever form the spiritual and temporal estates take, all must humble themselves and enter into this estate, as we will see. Marriage is therefore not some exceptional or narrow arrangement; it is the most universal and the most noble of all institutions, running through all of Christendom and extending across the entire world.

Second, keep in mind that marriage is not only honorable but also a necessary institution, earnestly commanded by God, so that men and women of all kinds, having been created for it, should generally be found within it. There are exceptions, though they are few: people whom God has specifically exempted, either because they are unfit for married life or because, through extraordinary gifts, they have been freed to live chaste lives without a spouse. For ordinary human nature, as God created it, chastity outside of marriage is simply impossible. Flesh and blood remain flesh and blood, and natural desire runs its course without restraint, as anyone's observation and experience will confirm. Therefore, so that people might more easily keep their desires in check, God commanded marriage, so that each person may have their proper portion and be satisfied. Even so, God's grace is still needed for the heart to remain pure.

All of this exposes the papal establishment, including its priests, monks, and nuns, for what it truly is: a system that dishonors and forbids marriage in direct defiance of God's command. These people take vows of perpetual chastity and presume to keep them, while deceiving ordinary people with false claims and distorted teaching. In reality, no one shows less genuine commitment to purity than those who, hiding behind a facade of great holiness, reject marriage, and then either openly engage in fornication or secretly practice something worse and too shameful to name, as has been proven far too many times. And even in cases where they manage to avoid outright sin, their hearts are so consumed by impure thoughts and disordered desires that they endure constant, burning temptation, the very kind that married life is designed to relieve. This commandment, therefore, condemns all vows of chastity made outside of marriage. More than that, it gives permission, and indeed issues a direct command, to all those poor souls whose consciences have been taken captive by monastic vows: leave those unchaste conditions and enter into married life. Even if one were to grant that life in a monastery is genuinely godly, the simple fact is that most people living that way cannot maintain continence. If they stay, they will only sin more and more against this commandment.

I raise these matters so that our young people might be drawn to love married life and to recognize it for what it is: a blessed state, one that is genuinely pleasing to God. If they come to see it that way, then over time marriage may be restored to the honor it deserves, and the shameless, disordered conduct now running rampant in the world, seen in public prostitution and the many other vices that grow from contempt for marriage, may begin to be corrected. For this reason, parents and civil authorities have a real obligation to raise the young with discipline and integrity, and when those young people come of age, to see them married honorably and in the fear of God. When that happens, God will not withhold His blessing and grace, and people will find genuine joy and happiness in married life.

To summarize everything said above, this commandment requires a person not only to live chastely in action, word, and thought within their station in life, and especially within marriage, but also to love and appreciate the spouse God has given them. Above all else, love and harmony between husband and wife are essential to marital faithfulness. Deep trust and complete loyalty must characterize the relationship, because these are what produce genuine love and the desire to remain faithful. When those conditions are present, chastity follows naturally, without needing to be commanded. Paul urges married people to love and honor one another (Eph 5:22-25; Col 3:18-19). Here you have another precious work, indeed many great works, which you can confidently set against all the religious orders established without God's Word or command.