The very fact that there is another Commandment which states: “Do not let thyself lust after thy neighbor’s wife!” shows how little the meaning of this Sixth Commandment corresponds to the respective earthly laws.
“Thou shalt not commit adultery” can also read: “Thou shalt not break the peace of a marriage!” By peace one naturally understands also harmony. That at the same time stipulates what a marriage should really be like; for where there is nothing to break or to disturb, the Commandment, which is not governed by earthly interpretations and regulations, but by the Divine Will, does not apply either.
Hence a marriage only exists where harmony and peace reign as a matter of course. Where one always seeks to live only for the other and to make him happy. One-sidedness and the deadening boredom so often leading into temptation are then completely and forever precluded from the outset, as well as the dangerous craving for distraction or the illusion of being misunderstood! Murder weapons against any happiness! These particular evils simply cannot arise in a proper marriage where one really lives for the other, because the idea of being misunderstood, and also the craving for distraction, is merely the consequence of a pronounced selfishness which seeks to live only for oneself, but not for the other!
Where there is true love of soul, however, the mutual cheerful abandoning of self is something completely natural, and reciprocally, it is impossible for one party to be disadvantaged. Provided that the level of education does not show too great a gap!
That is a condition required by the Law of the Attraction of Homogeneous Species in the great Universe, which must be complied with if happiness is to be complete.
But where peace and harmony are not to be found, the marriage does not deserve to be called marriage; for then it is not one, but merely an earthly partnership which as such obtains no value before God, and therefore cannot bring blessing in that sense which is to be expected in a true marriage.
Hence the sixth Commandment, as a strict prerequisite, relates to real marriage according to the Will of God! No other kind is protected. But woe unto him who dares to disturb a true marriage in any way! For the triumph which he imagines he has gained here on earth awaits him in quite a different form in the ethereal world! Horrified, he would like to flee from it, when he has to cross into the realm where it awaits him.
It is adultery in the most far-reaching sense where even the attempt is made to separate two souls who truly love one another, as is often done by parents when some earthly circumstance or other is not in accordance with their wish! And woe also to the woman, woe to the man, be they young or old, who out of envy or flirtatiousness consciously brings discord or even a rift between such a couple! Pure love between two human beings shall be sanctified before everyone; it shall inspire everyone with reverence and respect, but not with desire! For it stands under the protection of God's Will!
If a feeling of such unclean desire seeks to arise in a human being, then he should turn away and look with a clear gaze only among those people who have not yet attached themselves to another soul.
If he seeks earnestly and with patience, he will definitely find a person who is compatible with him in the way willed by God, with whom he will then also be happy without first burdening himself with guilt, which can never bring or warrant happiness!
The great mistake of these people is often simply that they go out of their way to yield to the pressure of a feeling which at the outset is always weak, and then to retain it forcibly within, nurturing it with artificial fantasy until, gaining strength, it fills them, torments them, and even drives them to sin! Thousands of human spirits would not have to be lost if only they would always pay heed to the beginning, which, if it is not created by intellectual calculation, merely arises from a flirtatiousness unworthy of a human being, which in turn has its origin in the pernicious practices of earthly family life and particularly in social practices! It is just these which are often nothing short of marriage markets, no more decent than the undisguised slave-trade of the Orient! Therein lies a breeding-place for the seeds of adultery.
You parents, be on your guard lest you become guilty of adultery in regard to your children, by being too intellectually calculating! Countless parents are already so entangled! It takes much for them to free themselves again from it! You children, be careful that you do not become breakers of the peace between your parents, or else you too will be guilty of adultery! Ponder this well. Otherwise you make yourselves enemies of your God, and there is no such enemy who would not eventually have to become subject to destruction under unspeakable agonies, without God lifting a finger! You must never destroy the peace and the harmony between two human beings.
Hammer this into yourself, so that it may always stand as a warning before the eyes of your soul. —