WHAT DOES
THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT....FORNICATION?
1 Corinthians 6:18-20 &
1 Corinthians 7:1-2
"Flee
fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he
that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? know ye not
that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye
have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price:
therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. Now
concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to
touch a woman. Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his
own wife, and let every woman have her own husband."
The
dictionary meaning of the word "fornication" means any unlawful sexual
intercourse including adultery. In the Bible the Greek definition of the
word "fornication" means to commit illicit sexual intercourse.
What constitutes unlawful sex? Whose laws do we live by? Worldly
standards or laws many times do not always line up with the Word of God. The
founding fathers of the United States established many laws that were
originally based on Christian standards and the laws of the Bible. However,
through time the United States has drifted far from these standards and at
the present our moral standards are shocking the world. However, immorality
is not only found in the U.S. but is a world-wide epidemic. Societies
throughout history and around the globe have embraced sexual standards that
are called sins in the Bible.
Fornication
is not just tolerated in our society but is actually being encouraged. The
sin of fornication is being committed even among Christians, as many couples
"live together" and have sex before marriage. The Bible tells us to flee
this sin. We have counseled Christians of the opposite sex who share an
apartment and they told us they were not having sex so this surely wasn't
wrong. The Bible declares these words in 1
Thessalonians 5:22-23:
"Abstain from all appearance of
evil. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your
whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ."
Our lives
as Christians are a living witness to others and we cannot break the laws of
God without hindering others from coming to Christ. We must live our lives
in purity before a sinful and wicked world. We should not be living
according to their standards but according to God's standard in the Bible.
No couple should live together outside the bonds of marriage.
Many say
they live together before marriage to see if they are compatible as they
don't want to divorce. This may sound like a justifiable reason for
committing the sin of fornication, but in God's eyes it is still sin.
Statistics however, show that those who live together before marriage are
more likely to get a divorce than those who do not. Living together shows a
total lack of trust in God and a failure to commit to Him the choosing of a
mate. Christians who are living in this situation are
out of the will of God and need to repent and seek God as to whether this
person is the right one for them. If it is God's
will for them to be together they should marry. Otherwise, they need to
change their living arrangements.
As
Christians, the goal of any relationship should be to cause the people in
our lives to love and know the Lord better. Living together is shameful and
selfish as the parties do not care what others think or how they might
affect their families and others. They are living to please their own lust
and selfish desires. This type of life style is destructive and especially
so for children whose parents are living a bad example before them.
No wonder our children are confused about right and wrong when
parents degrade the sanctity of marriage by living
together out of wedlock. How can living together cause children to love and
honor God when their parents break the laws of God
before them because they are lustful?
Young
people today need to be taught to abstain from sexual intercourse and remain
pure virgins before marriage. So many problems in marriages today stem from
the fact that they are not virgins when they marry. Young people are
bringing wounded emotions and diseased bodies into their marriages because
of prior promiscuous affairs. STDs (Sexually Transmitted Diseases) are so
widespread that the statistics are shocking. There are 12 million new cases
of STDs annually in the United states and 67% of these occur among persons
under the age of 25. In fact, every year one out of six teens contracts an
STD. 100,000 to 150,000 women become infertile each year as a result of
STDs.¹ Others endure years of pain as some of these diseases are incurable.
What a tragic price to pay for sexual sins. The Bible is right when it says
fornication is a sin against one's own body.
The sin of
fornication is not only defined as illicit sexual intercourse between those
who are not married but also is an umbrella for other sexual sins as well.
The Bible also speaks of the sin of incest as fornication in
1 Corinthians 5:1:
"It is reported commonly that
there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as
named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife."
The Bible
also lists whoremongers as fornicators in
Revelation 21:8:
But
the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and
whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their
part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second
death.
All
prostitutes and pimps are fornicators. Couples who just "live together"
according to the Bible, are committing the same sin that whores commit.
Singles who "make love" fall into the same category. Just
because society has accepted this type of living does not make it right. The
Bible must be our standard of what is right and wrong.
We must change our standards if we do not want the wrath of God to fall
on us. God hates sin but He loves the sinner. If anyone repents and calls on
Jesus today He will help them to come out of any illicit relationship and
heal them of all past hurts and even heal any disease that they may have
contracted.
God gave us
the laws in the Bible for our good. They are not meant to deny us any good
thing but they are given so we can enjoy the proper sexual relationship in
the proper time. If we obey the words of the Bible and
"flee fornication" and
glorify God in our bodies, the Lord will bless us beyond what we
could believe.
Psalm 145:17-21:
"The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy
in all his works. The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all
that call upon him in truth. He will fulfil the desire of them that fear
him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them. The LORD preserveth
all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy. My mouth shall
speak the praise of the LORD: and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever
and ever."
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