Job 31:11 | KingComments | STEP | The next statement of innocence, introduced by “if,” is about immorality. Job here affirms and defends his high esteem for the marriage commitment. It is the logical consequence of the covenant of , which he may have made when he was still unmarried. He swears that he is free from any attempt at, or search for, an opportunity for adultery ( ). To seek that opportunity, he had to lurk at his neighbor’s door. He would then wait for the husband to leave and then go to his wife. He kept away from this action with a purpose of heart. Who today can say the same as Job with regard to the temptation to look at pornographic sites on the Internet? We can apply the expression “I have lurked at my neighbor’s doorway” to this very topic. Visiting pornographic sites is such a ‘lurking’, something that happens very sneakily. If someone reads this and has to admit to his shame that he is such a ‘lurker’, let him confess this sin immediately and make a radical break with it in his heart. He who continues to have difficulty or in whom temptation has already become addiction, let him seek help. To Job there was only one wife to whom he could give his undivided attention and devotion, and that was the wife of his youth. He swears that if he were unfaithful to her, he would bear the shame ( ). That shame is that his wife would be abused by another. That was a great humiliation for her, as it was for him. It would bring shame upon him in two ways. He would experience the rule ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’. It is not a question for Job how he should call such behavior. There is no discussion possible. Unfaithfulness in marriage is “a lustful crime” ( ). There is never any justification for adultery, never is there even one good word to be said for it. It is absolutely reprehensible. It is also “a crime” that deserves punishment, without any mitigating circumstances. Therefore, whoever commits this sin must be brought to a tribunal. The fact that this no longer happens in the Netherlands, for example, does not take away anything from the seriousness and gravity of this sin. As mentioned before, God will judge that sin ( ). It is a sin that deserves the judgment of the fire of hell ( ). Through this sin, a devastating and consuming fire is already kindled in relationships on earth. Unfaithfulness in marriage ruins and destroys the lives of every person involved – in spirit, soul, and body. Everything that life produces is affected by it and characterized by this destruction. Whoever is unfaithful in this is not reliable in any other area.