Joseph was a slave in the household of the Egyptian court official Potiphar. Tempted perhaps by Joseph’s masculine beauty, Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce Joseph. Since he was but a slave, he easily could have felt obliged to obey her, possibly with the hope of bettering his position. Yet, Joseph flatly rejected her immoral advances, saying, “How could I commit this great badness and actually sin against God?” (Gen. 39:1-9) What moved Joseph to view adultery as a sin against God?

9. Why did Joseph reject adultery as a “sin against God”?

⁹ He did not respond that way because of a written law of God forbidding adultery, such as only later appeared in the Ten Commandments. (Ex. 20:14) And here was Joseph in Egypt, far from any family pressure or patriarchal rules. Clearly Joseph’s conscience was involved. Adultery violated his moral sense. He likely could “feel” that it was wrong to take what did not belong to him, another man’s wife. And this feeling could have been strengthened by his having reflected on the fact that a man and his wife are “one flesh,” a fact with which Adam was well acquainted. (Gen. 2:24; Matt. 19:4, 5) Also, he would have heard of the experiences of Abraham and Isaac, which did not show approval of adultery. (Gen. 20:1-18; 26:7-11) Hence, even without a law against adultery Joseph’s conscience could move him to reject it.

16. How else can and should your conscience function?

¹⁶ The other function of conscience is its operation ahead of time in guiding and advising one who needs to make a moral choice or decision. Lecturer Eric D’Arcy observed: “In the pagan writers conscience did not appear on the scene until after the action was performed, and its role was purely judicial; but in [the Bible], conscience is credited with a legislative function.” It was this aspect of conscience that enabled Joseph to sense beforehand that he must not commit adultery. He followed his conscience in rejecting a course that was against his moral sense. Has your conscience functioned in this way? Is it aiding you as it should?