Faithfulness is an obvious requirement for the married man.
And in Matthew’s gospel account, Jesus Christ made it clear to His disciples that adultery not only violated God’s conjugal boundaries, but He also diminished the depth of the playing field:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” [my emphasis] [Matt. 5:27-28] [μοιχεύω: to commit adultery]
So then, from a married man’s perspective, I’m forced to rethink the popular expression:
“Doesn’t hurt ta’ look, duzzit?”
However, I know for a fact that not all of Jesus’ disciples were married men. So how is it possible for an unmarried man to commit adultery?
Jesus illustrated how that happens by challenging the way a man qualifies himself in the eyes of the One he claims to love. He wasn’t just defining faithfulness by clarifying what a breach of the marriage covenant actually was, He was also using marriage to reinforce the concept of relational fidelity.
In other words, true faithfulness first conceived in a clean heart is then demonstrated by a physical gesture. But, more importantly, the moral precedent that a man can render himself impure by his thoughts had been established.
[Is pornography only harmful for married men? see: Common Sense and the Slipperiest of Slopes [1]]
In God’s eyes, marital infidelity is but a symptom of a much larger problem. If a man can’t be faithful to his wife, he can’t begin to be faithful to his Lord. And while there might be a few wives willing to tolerate their husband’s immoral behavior, God cannot.
A Perfect Spirit can never be bound up together with one that’s impure.
The disciple’s body is the Lord’s dwelling place,–whether he’s married or not.