THE SIN OF FORNICATION

The Sin of Fornication from BIBLE-KNOWLEDGE.COM
know this next topic is going to be a very, very sensitive one for many single Christian men and women. Due to the laxness of our society, and no one wanting any kind of God or moral absolutes telling them what they can and cannot do in this life, we have many people, including many Christians, who are engaging in the sin of fornication.

If there is one sin that many people do not want to give up in this day and age because of the extreme sexual and physical pleasure that it brings along with it, it has to be the sin of fornication. Many single Christians I have talked with over the years who were doing this with their steady partners all told me that since they were not married yet, they were hoping that God would cut them some “slack” in this area, turn a blind eye to it, and allow them to at least have this one vice in their life since they had no idea how much longer it would be before they got married.

Other Christians, especially men, were literally chasing after many women, not just one steady partner, and they were having sex with whoever they could find at the time. Many professional Christian business men I had worked with were doing this on a regular basis. Some were married and some were not. But in either case, they were not willing to give up this sin even though they knew what the Bible had to say about it. They said their sexual desires were just too strong and they just flat out did not want to give up this particular sin for the Lord.

For every single Christian man and woman who is out there still committing this sin – the 50 million dollar question now becomes – will God allow you some slack on this sin and turn a blind eye to it due the laxness and permissiveness of our society – or does He mean exactly what He is saying in the Scripture verses I will give you below?

I think once you study the verses I will give you below, you will see that God is meaning exactly what He is saying in His Word on this topic, and He will not be turning a blind eye to this sin or cutting anyone any slack for wanting to stay in it. As you will see in some of these verses, God is using some very intense language to describe what He thinks of this sin and the consequences of this sin if one does not confess, repent and pull out of it within a reasonable period of time.

I will first start out by giving you the key verses from Scripture on this sin, and then point out and highlight some key statements God is making in these verses. I will then end this article with some commentary on this sin, as over the last 2-3 years we have received many interesting emails from people all over the world on this particular area.

The Scripture Verses
Before I get into the actual Scripture verses, here are some basic definitions from some of the different Bible Dictionaries on exactly what this sin is in case you were not sure what the word “fornication” actually meant:

•Sex relations between the unmarried
•Sexual relationships outside the bonds of marriage
•Unchastity, sexual immorality – refers to every kind of illegal sexual intercourse, that is, any intercourse except that between a husband and wife
•Voluntary sexual intercourse of an unmarried person with someone of the opposite sex
As you can see from the definitions on what this word means, God has it set up that sexual intercourse can only be done between two married people in a heterosexual union. The act of sexual intercourse was never meant to be done outside the bonds of holy matrimony.

As Christians, not only must we love God, serve God, and follow His perfect plan and destiny for our lives, but we must also follow all of His ways for our lives. And the Bible is loaded with all of the ways of God so we know exactly what we can and cannot do in this life. And no matter how you try to slice and dice the issue of fornication, it is simply outside the will of God for our lives.

As you read these verses below, you will see there is no way to spin or re-interpret these verses. Once again, they are all very straight forward and they all mean exactly what they are saying.

Here are 9 very good verses from our Bible on what God’s opinion really is on the subject of fornication:

1.“For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.” (Matthew 15:19-20)

2.“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9)

3.“But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; … For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.” (Ephesians 5: 3-5)

4.“Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Galatians 5:19)

5.“Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For “The two,” He says, “shall become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. 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? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (1 Corinthians 6:15-20)

6.“For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God … For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness.” (1 Thessalonians 4:3-7)

7.“Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you also once walked when you lived in them.” ( Colossians 3: 5-7)

8.“… and lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and I shall mourn for many who have sinned before and have not repented of the uncleanness, fornication, and licentiousness which they have practiced.” ( 2 Corinthians 12: 21)

9.“I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner – not even to eat with such a person.” ( 1 Corinthians 5: 9-11)
Notice the following key statements being made in these verses:

1. The very first verse is flat out telling you that fornication will “defile” a man. What exactly does the Bible mean when it says that this sin will defile a man? Here is the definition of the word “defile” from some of the different Bible Dictionaries and Commentaries:

1.Making the pure impure
2.To make ritually or unethically unclean
3.To make common
4.To render unholy, unclean
5.To make foul
6.To make filth or dirty, pollute
7.To corrupt, to violate the chastity of, deflower
8.The vices of the ungodly which contaminate a person in his intercourse with the world
As you can see from some of these definitions, the word “defile” is a very strong and intense word being used by the Lord to tell us exactly what the sin of fornication will do to all of us if we engage in it.

With this first verse telling us that the act of fornication will actually defile us, I find it hard to believe that God will want to cut us any slack on this sin and agree to turn a blind eye to it due to the permissiveness of our society or due to the fact that every one else is doing it. The word “defile” is simply too strong of a word being used by the Lord and I thus do not think He will agree to turn a blind eye to it like so many single Christians are now thinking.

2. In the next three verses, God really turns up the heat where He lists the sin of fornication as one of the sins that will keep you from being able to enter into heaven. Are these three verses only talking about unbelievers, or is it also including Christians who are engaging in this sin and who do not pull out of it and get it forgiven under the blood of Jesus before they die and cross over? We obviously will find out once we get to the other side.

But with the way these three verses are being worded, fornication is obviously a very serious sin and offense against God and I would not want to be tempting my eternal fate with Him on this issue.

3. The 5th verse above adds more to all of this when it tells us that not only are we sinning against God, but we are also sinning against our own bodies when we commit this sin. It then goes on to point out that are bodies are now the temple of the Holy Spirit and that when we do commit this sin, we are becoming one body and one flesh with the other person we are having sex with.

The 6th verse then adds more to this when it tells us that God wants us to be sanctified in His site. He is calling all of us to holiness and He wants all of us to abstain from any kind of sexual immorality. He wants all of us to remain clean and pure. The act of fornication will do just the opposite – it will make us unclean, unholy, and impure in the eyes of God and that is not a place you want to be in with the Lord if you truly love Him and want to serve and follow Him in this life.

4. The very last verse I have listed above is one that really stunned me when I first read it. In this verse, the apostle Paul is telling us to basically shun our brothers who are operating in this sin. He is telling us that we should not even eat with them. You can also tell that he is talking about our Christian brothers and sisters, not unbelievers, when he uses the word “brother.”

I know in this day and age, this would be a very hard one to obey, as we all know and have some single, Christian friends who are fornicating with their steady partners. The only other thing I will say about this last verse is that if God is relaying this kind of a intense message where He does not want us eating and associating with people who are fornicating, then you know that this is a very serious sin and offense in His eyes, and that He does not want any of us engaging in it for any reason whatsoever.

When you put all of these verses together, one right after the other, there can be no doubt in anyone’s rational mind what God’s opinion really is on fornication. Once again, in a bolded, numbered format, here are what the above verses are telling us in no uncertain terms.

The sin of fornication:

1.Will defile us and cause us to become unholy and unclean in the eyes of God
2.Will cause us to sin against both God and our own bodies
3.Will cause us to become one body and one flesh with the person we are fornicating with
4.Will be one of the specific sins that will keep people from being able to enter into heaven
5.And to top it all off – God will not want His own people associating with people who are engaging in this sin
As I said at the top of this article, many single Christians I have talked with about this sin are “hoping” that God will cut them some slack on this sin due to the fact that everyone else is doing it and our society has become so much more lax and permissive in its moral standards.

But if you believe the Bible is God’s true Word to all of us, there is simply no way you can sugarcoat the above verses. Not only are these verses all very straight forward, but once again, God is using some very intense and strong language in these verses. This intense and strong language being used by the Lord is His big “tell” to all of us as to what He really thinks of this sin and how serious it really is in His eyes.

Thus any Christian who truly loves God and wants to serve and follow Him in this life will be willing to give up this sin until they get married.

Conclusion
Again, I know this particular topic is a very touchy and sensitive one for many today, especially in the lax and permissive times we are now all living in. As we all know, fornication brings with it extreme, physical pleasure, and for many, it is very hard to give up once you start to engage in it.

But with all of the above Scripture verses being very clear on what God’s opinion really is on this sin, any Christian who truly loves God will be willing to give it up for Him. When the above verses are telling us that this specific sin will actually defile us and cause us to sin against both God and our own bodies, there is simply no other way or angle to look at this sin from. There thus can be no rational justification for any single Christian to stay in it.

My brother Chris just recently married his mate 2 years ago. They dated for two years before they got married and they both made a pact and vow with both themselves and with God that they would not have sex until after they got married due to what God’s Word had to say on this issue. And to this day, they are really glad they did it. They feel God has blessed them as a result of doing this and nothing but good has come out of it as a result.

The other thing that we have noticed is that we have been receiving many more emails from people all across the world on this issue over the last 2 years or so. And in each one of these cases, God was moving on each couple to pull out of this sin until they got married.

The Holy Spirit was really moving with strong conviction on each of these people. As a result, many of these single couples were pulling out this sin, as they wanted to obey the Lord and not displease Him. When they did, they felt an incredible sense of peace come upon them for listening to the Lord’s instructions on this sin.

The Bible says that Jesus will be coming back for a Bride that will be without spot or blemish. And in order for that to happen, the Holy Spirit is going to have to be moving on many people to get them to clean up their acts and any obvious sins they are still living in. And fornication is definitely going to be one of the sins the Holy Spirit will be moving on in the coming years if any single Christians are still engaging in it.