Union
Union (also known as Marriage) names a vowed household bond between persons who commit themselves to mutual fidelity, care, and shared life before God and community.
We use the word union because it emphasizes the covenantal act itself rather than inherited legal, tribal, sexual, or property frameworks attached to the word marriage. It names the bond without importing the whole historical machinery of marriage law, family hierarchy, or culture-war definition.
Adultery is understood primarily as a violation of love through betrayal of a freely given vow. The wrong is not merely sexual transgression, but the breaking of trust, fidelity, and mutual care promised to another person. Thus the commandment against adultery is grounded in the second commandment: to love one’s neighbor as oneself. A union therefore carries moral weight because vows made in love create obligations of honesty, faithfulness, and protection toward the other.