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What does the Bible say about having an affair?

Bible Topic · WEB

The Bible teaches that an affair is a grievous sin against God and one’s spouse, violating the covenant of marriage and calling for repentance, faith, and changed living. Hebrews 13:4 honors marriage and warns that God judges sexual immorality, while Proverbs 6:32 describes adultery as self-destructive folly. Jesus deepens the commandment in Matthew 5:28, exposing lustful intent as sin of the heart, and affirms marital faithfulness in Matthew 19:9 and Mark 10:11-12. Yet Christ offers mercy to the repentant: 1 Corinthians 10:13 promises God’s faithful provision of a way to endure temptation, and James 5:16 encourages honest confession and prayer within the church.

Top passages, ranked by readers

Rankings: OpenBible.info Topical Bible (CC BY) · Scripture: World English Bible

  • Hebrews 13:4 5 votes

    Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the bed be undefiled: but God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.

  • Proverbs 6:32 4 votes

    He who commits adultery with a woman is void of understanding. He who does it destroys his own soul.

  • 1 Corinthians 10:13 4 votes

    No temptation has taken you except what is common to man. God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but will with the temptation also make the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

  • 1 Corinthians 6:18 4 votes

    Flee sexual immorality! "Every sin that a man does is outside the body," but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.

  • Proverbs 6:29 3 votes

    So is he who goes in to his neighbor's wife. Whoever touches her will not be unpunished.

  • James 5:16 3 votes

    Confess your offenses to one another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed. The effective, earnest prayer of a righteous man is powerfully effective.

  • Revelation 1:1 2 votes

    This is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things which must happen soon, which he sent and made known by his angel to his servant, John,

  • Matthew 19:9 2 votes

    I tell you that whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and he who marries her when she is divorced commits adultery."

  • Matthew 5:28 2 votes

    but I tell you that everyone who gazes at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.

  • Mark 10:11-12 2 votes

    [11] He said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife, and marries another, commits adultery against her. [12] If a woman herself divorces her husband, and marries another, she commits adultery."

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