At their root, our good and evil inclinations are one and the same. God has given us the choice of how to direct any given drive. The greater and more powerful a particular drive, the greater its potential to be a force for good or for evil. The most powerful of these desires is the sexual impulse. It can be positive, expressed with holiness and love, in a way that intensifies a couple’s happiness and brings the next generation into being. Alternatively, it can be negative, expressed coarsely and destructively, in a way that devastates families through adultery and leads individuals to descend to the depths of depravity. Misdirecting this drive is so harmful that the prohibition of adultery is one of the Ten Commandments.
