What is Fornication?

"If Everyone is DOING IT does that make it right?"
(Famous words  from my Mother !!)

The following question arrived in my e-mail:

"Hazel, can you help me to find the scriptures/passages in the Bible that talk about sex before marriage and people living together unmarried? Thank you."

Perhaps the question should have been: What does the Bible say about Fornication?

Before I can answer that question, we need to lay some ground-work. 

First God changes not and what he said about morality and his plan for sex within marriage from the beginning is still truth for today.  The language changes as the Bible does not use the exact words “Sex before marriage” or the words, “Living together outside of marriage.” 

What the Bible does speak about is sexual sin, immorality, fornication, adultery in all its forms and says to avoid at all costs.

Many say, but we are living in the 21^st century and we now have laws that allow us to do things the Bible says is wrong. 

We can argue and try to make excuses to fit what we desire to do, but the bottom line is; to be immoral and to sexually fornicate is a sin.

Many have suffered bad experiences in the past with unfaithful marriage partners.  Paul gave a simple way out for new believers:  Acts 21:25 As for the Gentile/new believers, we have written to them our decision that they should abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality.”

Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.  Hebrews 13:4

Let us examine the definition of the big - - F word:  FORNICATION?

It is voluntary sexual intercourse between a man and woman who are not married to each other and is a common type of fornication.  Adultery is also a type of fornication.

Fornication thus includes not only premarital sex, living together without marriage and also adultery, homosexual acts, incest and prostitution.

Thou shall not commit adultery is one of the TEN commandments.

In every one of its forms, fornication is sternly condemned by the Mosaic law among God’s people.

Fornication is also mentioned many times in the New Testament

^{Acts 15:19-20}  “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles (new believers) who are turning to God. ²⁰ Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.

“But if they can’t control themselves, they should go ahead and marry. It’s better to marry than to burn with lust.” —  I Corinthians 7:9

Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.  Hebrews 13:4

^{Romans 1:28} Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. ²⁹ They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity.

I Corinthians  6:13   You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

I Corinthians 6:18-19  Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 19  Or do you not know that your body is the temple of  the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?

I Corinthians 7:2 But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband.

2 Corinthians 12:²¹  I am afraid that when I come again my God will humble me before you, and I will be grieved over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual sin and debauchery in which they have indulged.

Galations 5:19-21 ¹⁹ The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰ idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹ and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Ephesians 5:3  But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.

Colossians 3:5 Therefore shun, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.

I Thessalonians 4:3  It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality;

Jude 1:7 In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.

Revelations 2: ¹⁴ Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality

Revelations 9:²¹ Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.

ADULTERY—“Conjugal infidelity. An adulterer was a man who had sexual intercourse with a woman he was not married to, either a married woman or one who was engaged to be married. A woman who did the same thing was an adulteress.

Adultery is FORNICATION. The Bible regards adultery as a great sin  and a great social wrong. 

“But if they can’t control themselves, they should go ahead and marry. It is better to marry than to burn with lust.”  I Corinthians 7:9 

 Hebrews 13:4  Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. 

Question: "Why is living together before marriage considered LIVING IN SIN?"

There are numerous Scriptures that declare God’s prohibition of sexual immorality. 

See the above list of Scriptures already mentioned.  

The Greek word translated “sexual immorality” or “fornication” in these verses is porneia (from which we get the English word pornography), and it means literally “unlawful lust.”  

Since the only form of lawful sexuality is the marriage of one man and one woman.  

Genesis 2: ²⁴ Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 

Matthew 19: 5 Then Jesus said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 

Then anything outside of marriage, whether it is adultery, premarital sex, homosexuality, or anything else, is unlawful, in other words, sin. Living together before marriage definitely falls into the category of fornication — sexual sin.

Lust is an inward sin which leads to a falling away from God.  (Rom 1:21) 

Did you know that we’re commanded to avoid sexual impurity in nearly every book of the New Testament and of the Old?

“And the men, instead of having normal sexual relationships with women, burned with lust for each other.  Men did shameful things with other men and, as a result, suffered within themselves the penalty they so richly deserved.”  Romans 1:27

I Corinthians 7:2  But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. 

Footnote:  many of the scriptures were researched from ChristianAnswers.net

Another great place to research is Christianity.about.com

If someone is caught in sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. -Galatians 6:1
I am so thankful that God is a God of Mercy and when we come to him in repentance, He is ready to forgive.  Each of us has sinned in some form or manner, so - - If you are pointing fingers about now, you might want to read this post: 
 

WHY IS SHE SO ANGRY?

 

 

If you are pointing fingers about now, you might want to read this post: 

WHY IS SHE SO ANGRY?