Short answer: Yes. Adultery is a sin in the Bible and one of the most frequently condemned. It is forbidden in the seventh of the Ten Commandments, and Jesus extended the warning to the heart. But adultery is not unforgivable: God forgives the person who truly repents, though the damage to a marriage can take years to repair.
In This Article
- What Is Adultery According To The Bible?
- What Does The Bible Say About Adultery?
- What Is God's Punishment For Adultery?
- Does A Look Or An Emotional Affair Count As Adultery?
- Will God Forgive Adultery?
- How Should You Confess And Rebuild After Adultery?
- What Does Adultery Do To A Marriage And A Family?
- Key Bible Verses About Adultery
Most people who search this question are either wrestling with temptation, hurting from a spouse's betrayal, or carrying their own guilt. Pastors hear all three. People in the pews kept asking me the same things: what exactly counts, will God forgive me, and what do I do now? This article walks through what Scripture says, in that order.
What Is Adultery According To The Bible?
In the Old Testament, adultery meant a sexual relationship between a married or betrothed woman and a man who was not her husband. Jesus widened the picture in the New Testament, speaking in Mark 10:11 to 12 and Luke 16:18 of a man's faithfulness to his wife as well as the reverse. Paul says the same about the body in 1 Corinthians 6:15 to 16 and 1 Corinthians 7:2. Put simply, adultery is sexual relations between a married person and someone who is not their spouse.
The command itself is short:
You shall not commit adultery.
Exodus 20:14 (NIV)
Because the command is stated with no explanation, we can tell that people already understood it. Joseph in Genesis 39 refuses Potiphar's wife with the words that to sleep with her would be a sin against God (Genesis 39:9), and Abimelech speaks of adultery as a great sin in Genesis 20:9, long before the law was given at Sinai.
What Does The Bible Say About Adultery?
The Bible treats marriage as sacred and treats betrayal of it as serious. The writer of Hebrews says:
Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.
Hebrews 13:4 (NIV)
Proverbs describes the toll in plain terms. A man who commits adultery has no sense, and it is he who ends up destroying himself (Proverbs 6:32). Adultery wounds a spouse, breaks promises made before God, and drags in children, friends, and the church.
Notice that the prohibition never changes. From Exodus to the letters of Paul, God's people are told to guard marriage. For the wider list of behaviours the Bible warns against, see what sexual immorality means in Scripture.
What Is God's Punishment For Adultery?
In ancient Israel, the law prescribed death for both the adulterer and the adulteress (Leviticus 20:10). That law was given to Israel as a nation under God's direct rule, and Christians are not under it today. Even then, Jesus' response to the woman caught in the act shows where mercy and truth meet, and I have written about that story in Let Any One Of You Who Is Without Sin Cast The First Stone.
For the Christian today, the punishment is not a civil penalty from the church but God's judgment, as Hebrews 13:4 says, together with the ordinary wreckage adultery causes: broken trust, divorce, and grief that spreads through a family. Those who repent find forgiveness from God. Those who do not repent should take the warning seriously, because Scripture never treats the sin as small.
Does A Look Or An Emotional Affair Count As Adultery?
People often ask whether there are exceptions: separated but not divorced, or an affair that never became physical. The Bible lists no exceptions. And Jesus pressed the matter inward:
But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Matthew 5:28 (NIV)
He is not saying every glance is a crime. He is saying that adultery begins long before the act, in a gaze that is held and fed. The same is true of emotional affairs. A spouse can be betrayed by a flood of private messages, late-night confidences, and secret attachments that were never physical, and these affairs tend to grow into something physical. Discuss feelings with your spouse, not a coworker. That is the safest guardrail I know. For more on this, read Is Lust A Sin In The Bible? and Is Cheating A Sin In The Bible?
Will God Forgive Adultery?
Yes, when a person comes with real repentance. King David committed adultery with Bathsheba and then arranged her husband's death, and yet when the prophet Nathan confronted him, David confessed, and Psalm 51 is his prayer afterward. It begins:
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.
Psalm 51:1 (NIV)
The forgiveness did not erase what David had done. His family suffered for years. That pattern repeats: God forgives fully, but consequences remain. Jesus showed the same grace to the woman caught in adultery, telling her to leave her life of sin (John 8:11). The invitation is to forgiveness and to a changed life, together.
So can someone who has committed adultery go to heaven? Salvation rests on Christ's work and not on a clean record, and Paul lists adulterers among those who once lived in sin and were washed, sanctified, and justified in Christ (1 Corinthians 6:9 to 11). What the Bible warns against is unrepentant, settled adultery, a life that plans to keep sinning. See Does God Forgive All Sins? and How To Repent.
How Should You Confess And Rebuild After Adultery?
Many readers ask what to say when confessing, and what not to do. In the Protestant understanding, you confess directly to God, and promise is attached to it:
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9 (NIV)
The Catholic and Orthodox traditions teach confession to a priest, who pronounces absolution on behalf of the church. In every tradition, honest confession names the sin as sin, without excuses, blaming the other person, or minimizing. After confessing, give thanks and then act: end the affair completely, cut contact, and get accountability from a pastor or counselor you trust.
A confession to the one you wronged is a separate matter, and it is one you owe. A betrayed spouse is entitled to the truth, and rebuilding takes patient, humble work over a long time. James tells believers to confess to one another so they may be healed (James 5:16), and our article on confessing your sins to one another explains how. Some marriages do heal, and I believe God honors the couple who goes through that hard road together.
Prevention matters as much as repair. Give your marriage first place among your human relationships. Be careful with one-on-one time, late-night texting, and private jokes with someone of the opposite sex. Small habits protect big promises.
What Does Adultery Do To A Marriage And A Family?
The Bible rarely lectures about consequences without showing them. Adultery shatters trust, and trust is the floor a marriage stands on. A betrayed spouse often feels grief, anger, and doubt about everything that came before. Children feel it too. Their sense of safety at home is shaken, and they lose the example of a faithful marriage that they will carry into their own. The pain is real, though I would not say every family is doomed, because many have rebuilt with God's help and honest counsel. Still, nothing here is cheap. A short-lived thrill is traded for losses that last. For more on what Scripture says about family and children, those articles are a good next step.
| Question | What Scripture Says |
|---|---|
| Is it forbidden? | Yes, in the seventh commandment (Exodus 20:14) |
| Does it include the heart? | Yes, lustful looking is called adultery in the heart (Matthew 5:28) |
| Can it be forgiven? | Yes, with repentance (Psalm 51, John 8, 1 John 1:9) |
| Does it have consequences? | Yes, for the person, the spouse, and the family (Proverbs 6:32) |
Key Bible Verses About Adultery
- Exodus 20:14: the seventh commandment forbids adultery.
- Hebrews 13:4: marriage is to be honored, and God will judge the adulterer.
- Proverbs 6:32: adultery destroys the one who commits it.
- Matthew 5:28: Jesus takes the sin back to the heart.
- Genesis 39:9: Joseph calls it a sin against God.
- Psalm 51:1: David's prayer for mercy after his sin.
- John 8:11: Jesus offers mercy and calls for a changed life.
- 1 John 1:9: forgiveness follows honest confession.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you go to heaven if you committed adultery?
Yes, if you repent and trust Christ. Salvation does not depend on a spotless record, and Paul says some in Corinth had lived in sexual sin and were then washed and justified. What the Bible warns about is persistent, unrepentant sin.
Will God forgive adultery?
He will. David's story in Psalm 51 and Jesus' mercy to the woman in John 8 show that God forgives the repentant. Forgiveness does not always remove consequences, such as a broken marriage or lost trust.
What sins does God not forgive?
The only sin the Bible names as unforgivable is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, a settled rejection of God's work. Adultery is not that sin. Read What Is The Unforgivable Sin? for more.
What is the number one worst sin?
The Bible does not rank sins on one list. All sin separates us from God, though some sins do greater damage to others. Our hub at Sins A To Z covers each question in turn.
What do I say when I am done confessing my sins?
Thank God for his forgiveness, ask for strength to change, and make any wrongs right. In a Protestant setting you can simply close with thanks and then act on what you confessed. Catholics also complete the penance their priest assigns.
