О седьмой заповеди
The Seventh Commandment Defined
The seventh commandment is defined as "You shall not commit adultery."
Question 65. What is the seventh commandment?✦ Answer. "You shall not commit adultery" (Ex.1 20:14).
The Meaning of Adultery
The commandment against adultery encompasses both spiritual adultery (rejecting the faith) and bodily adultery (lustful union), and forbids all forms of sexual sin and indulgence.
Question 66. What does this commandment mean? Answer. Christ our Lord commanded that this commandment be kept in the strictest way when he said: "Anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Matt.2 13:28).3 This adultery is of two kinds: spiritual and bodily. The one who commits adultery spiritually is the one who rejects the true and Orthodox Catholic Faith and gives himself over to various schisms; Scripture says of such a person: "You have destroyed everyone who is unfaithful to You" (Ps.45 72, 27). Bodily adultery is a lustful union with another man's wife. This commandment also forbids every other kind of sexual sin and indulgence; it condemns flirtation, procuring, seductive songs, indecent dancing, and shameless games, as the Apostle shows when he says: "But sexual immorality and every kind of impurity or greed must not even be mentioned among you, as is fitting for the saints: no filthy talk, no foolish talk, no crude joking, which are all out of place" (Eph.67
Further Prohibitions
The commandment also condemns flirtation, procuring, seductive songs, indecent dancing, and shameless games.
5:3–4).8
Read the original Russian
Вопрос 65. Какая седьмая заповедь?
Ответ. «Не прелюбы сотвори» (Исх. 20, 14).
Вопрос 66. Какой смысл сей заповеди?
Ответ. Христос Господь наш повелел соблюдать строжайшим образом заповедь сию, когда сказал: «всяк, иже воззрит на жену ко еже вожделети ея, уже любодействова с нею в сердце своем» (Мф. 13, 28). Сие прелюбодеяние есть двоякое: одно духовное, другое плотское. Духовно прелюбодействует тот, кто, отвергнув истинную и Православную Веру Кафолическую, вдается в различные расколы; о таковом человеке Писание говорит: «потребил еси всякаго любодеющаго от Тебе" (Пс. 72, 27). Плотское прелюбодеяние есть сладострастный союз с чужою женою. Сею заповедию запрещается и всякое другое любодейство и сладострастие; она осуждает кокетство, сводничество, соблазнительные песни, непристойные пляски, нескромные игры, как показывает Апостол, говоря: «Блуд же и всяка нечистота и лихоимство ниже да именуется в вас, якоже подобает Святым: и сквернословие, и буесловие, или кощуны, яже неподобная» (Еф.
5, 3–4).
Scripture echoes
- ↩Exod.20.14 — You shall not commit adultery.
Notes
- 1 ↩The Russian quotes the Church Slavonic form «Не прелюбы сотвори». English keeps the familiar scriptural cadence of the commandment rather than modernizing it, since the source is itself quoting a fixed liturgical/biblical formula.
- 2 ↩Russian «когда сказал» is causal-temporal: the command's strictness is grounded in Christ's own saying. Rendered "when he said" to keep that force rather than a loose "as he said".
- 3 ↩The quoted saying is Matthew 5:28, but the printed citation reads "Мф. 13, 28". This is very likely a printing or OCR error for 5:28 (Matt. 13:28 is the parable of the weeds). The digits are reproduced as printed; correction deferred to reference resolution.
- 4 ↩«Кафолическую» is the Greek-derived term for the universal Church and is kept as "Catholic" (in the credal sense of universal), not as a confessional label; the sentence pairs it with "Orthodox".
- 5 ↩«любодеющаго от Тебе» renders the LXX idiom for religious harlotry — turning away from God to other allegiances. "Unfaithful to You" keeps the marital-covenant metaphor that drives the whole argument.
- 6 ↩«кокетство» and «сводничество» name a spectrum from provocative flirtation to acting as a go-between for illicit sex; "flirtation" and "procuring" preserve both ends without softening the second.
- 7 ↩«лихоимство» in the Slavonic Ephesians text is covetous grasping; it stands here alongside the sexual sins because both are forms of consuming another person, and is rendered "greed" rather than narrowed to money.
- 8 ↩This section contains only the tail of a Scripture citation split across the section break: the chapter-and-verse portion of the reference to Ephesians begun at the end of the previous section ("Еф. | 5, 3–4)."). Rendered with modern chapter:verse punctuation; nothing is added or invented.
Orthodox Confession (Pravoslavnoe Ispovedanie) companion
Rule yourself daily, not just on retreat
Chosen Portion turns the mirror into a daily practice — a short reading and examining question each morning before you lead anyone.
Chosen Portion makes the mirror daily: the ruler-formation questions this collection preserves become a two-minute morning examination in the app.
- A daily formation reading drawn from centuries of counsel to those in authority
- One pointed examination question a day — two minutes, before the meetings start
- Track your practice over weeks and watch the examined life become a habit