Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Hebrews 13:4

"[Let] marriage [be] had in honor among all, and [let] the bed [be] undefiled: for fornicators and adulterers God will judge." — Hebrews 13:4 (ASV)

From love for the badly treated the author turns to love within the marriage bond. The opening expression implies an imperative: “Let marriage be held in honor.” “By all” probably means “in all circumstances.” Some ascetics held marriage in low esteem, but the author of Hebrews rejects this position. “The marriage bed” is a euphemism for sexual intercourse. He considers the physical side of marriage important and “pure.” Contrary to the views of some thinkers in the ancient world, there is nothing defiling about it. Over against honorable marriage he sets the “sexually immoral” (GK 4521) and the “adulterer” (GK 3659; a word used for a violation of the marriage bond).

All forms of sexual sin come under the judgment of God. This was a novel view to many in the first century. For them chastity was an unreasonable demand to make. It is one of the unrecognized miracles that Christians were able not only to make this demand but to make it stick. Sexual sinners are likely to go their way, careless of all others. But in the end they will be judged by none less than God.