What does the Bible say about fornication?
Answered from the commentary of Arend Remmers, Truth & Testimony, C. E. Stuart and 7 others
Fornication is sexual intercourse outside marriage; it includes prostitution and intercourse even once, whether or not the people intend to marry, and if either person is married it is also adultery. Marriage is to be honourable and its bed undefiled, but fornicators and adulterers God will judge. It is forbidden, and the warning is not to treat it as a small or indifferent sin.
Flee fornication, keeping far from temptation, because the body is for the Lord, is a member of Christ and a temple of the Holy Spirit, and is not one’s own. The body joined to a harlot becomes one body with her; therefore this sin is against one’s own body, and believers are to glorify God in their bodies. God calls His people to holiness, and those who give way to impurity despise God; the Lord is the avenger of such wrongs. Fornicators shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
The above is AI generated summary based on the writers below.
What the commentators say
The passages the answer is drawn from, the most direct first, with the words that bear on the question marked.
In God's sight immoral behaviour is so abominable that Paul had to write to Ephesus: "But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints" (Eph. 5: 3). This means that we should not mention these things frivolously and so make little of them. The Bible speaks very clearly as to God's judgment about these sins. Holy Scripture not only calls prostitution fornication, but all extramarital intercourse, even where there may be the intention to get married, and even if it is done only once (cf. Gen. 34 and 38). In the world today the word fornication is only used in connection with the first meaning. In the New Testament, however, extramarital intercourse in general is called fornication, that of married persons is called adultery, and both are condemned as abominable sin (Matt. 15: 19; 1 Cor. 6: 9; Heb. 13: 4).
In God's sight immoral behaviour is so abominable that Paul had to write to Ephesus: “But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints” (Eph. 5:3). This means that we should not mention these things frivolously and so make little of them. The Bible speaks very clearly as to God's judgment about these sins. Holy Scripture not only calls prostitution fornication, but all extramarital intercourse, even where there may be the intention to get married, and even if it is done only once (cf. Gen. 34 and 38). In the world today the word fornication is only used in connection with the first meaning. In the New Testament, however, extramarital intercourse in general is called fornication, that of married persons is called adultery, and both are condemned as abominable sin (Matt. 15:19; 1 Cor. 6:9; Heb. 13:4).
The whole of Scripture is full of the errors of fornication (Acts 15 v 29) and adultery (Exodus 20 v 14). The first is sexual relationship outside of marriage and the second sexual relationship with a married person. We must clearly state that physical affection is only intended by God for one man and one woman and that within the confines of marriage and to a very limited extent by a couple committed to marriage (see previous chapter).
According to Scripture, the sin of fornication not only refers to prostitution, but to any pre- or extramarital intercourse. We saw this earlier when we considered verses 27-30. Fornication is also adultery when at least one of the persons involved is married. Here the general term, "fornication," is used, although the verse deals especially with adultery. It seems rather far-fetched to interpret "fornication" here as implying immoral behaviour before the marriage, of which the husband learns only after the wedding.
The apostle turns next to fleshly abuses: the first in respect of meats, the second and gravest in fornication. He had shown that, whatever the grace of God is in calling the vilest, all such are saved after a holy sort. This he now exemplifies in two instances where some pleaded liberty to deny practical purity. Of this he will not hear. He will not diminish liberty one jot, but he asserts its character to be Christian, as all our other privileges are. If not of Christ, it is sin. So is it with all we boast: life, righteousness, peace, and glory. In this liberty differs not from the rest. What Christian could wish any of these in or for the flesh? It would be to abandon the Second man for the first: to wish licence for sin proves utter lack of love and honour for the Saviour.
"All things are lawful to me, but all things do not profit; all things are lawful to me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats, but God will bring to nought both it and them; but the body [is] not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God both raised the Lord, and will raise up us by his power. Know ye not, that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then taking the members of Christ make [them] members of a harlot? Let it not be. What! Know ye not that he that is joined to the harlot is one body? For, says he, the two [shall be] one flesh. But he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every sin which a man may practise is outside the body, but the fornicator sins against his own body. What! Know ye not that your body† is a temple of the Holy Spirit that [is] in you, which ye have from God; and ye are not your own? For ye were bought with a price: do then glorify God in your body."‡ (Ver. 12-20.)
12 All things are lawful to me, but not all things profit; all things are lawful to me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. 13 Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats, but God will bring to nought both it and them; but the body [is] not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 And God both raised the Lord, and will raise up us by his power. 15 Know ye not, that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then, taking the members of Christ, make [them] members of a harlot? Let it not be. 16 What! know ye not that he that is joined to the harlot is one body? For, says he, the two [shall be] one flesh. 17 But he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. 18 Flee fornication. Every sin whatsoever that a man may practise is outside the body, but the fornicator sins against his own body. 19 What! know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit that [is] in you, and that ye are not your own? 20 For ye were bought with a price: do then glorify God in your body.
Verse 18. "Flee fornication," etc. Instead of being regarded as a thing indifferent, or even as a trivial offence, this sin is to be dreaded and shunned as a leprosy; for it contaminates both soul and body. Other sins did so but in part; but this completely, by turning that which God has claimed for Himself to an use which He condemns. A wrong is thus inflicted on the body itself, by alienating it from its true honour as an instrument of righteous worship, and again degrading it to the service of sin. It is, therefore, morally, what idolatry is spiritually; and the dissuasive from both is expressed by the apostle in the same terms.8 Each sin is to be fled from, by those who would please God. But there is a further and especial sense in which a believer's body is said to be sinned against by such an act. And this also the Corinthians should have known.
"Flee fornication." In this one is not told to fight, but to keep far from it, as Joseph fled from the wife of Potiphar. Other sins may not involve the body in this way, but this is sin against one's own body. And as well as our bodies being the members of Christ, now we are told, "Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost." The Spirit of God dwells within our body in order to display in us the precious reality of His character in our practical lives. Notice that it is not said that our spirits or souls are His temple, but our bodies. So that when we are told, "Ye are not your own," we cannot regard this as being merely in regard to our spiritual interests, but fully applicable to our bodies. Being bought with a price - a price so infinitely great - certainly we are totally the property of the Living God; and it is only right and becoming that we should glorify God in our body.
If a man and woman who were not married nor engaged were guilty of having sexual intercourse, the man must pay fifty shekels of silver to the woman's father and keep her as his wife, being forbidden to ever divorce her (vs.28-29). In all of these things God shows the seriousness of having sexual relationships. He intended this only within the marriage bond, and those who today violate this can expect unpleasant consequences, as well as the displeasure of the Lord.
This was very common among the Gentiles, which accounts for its being mentioned in the message sent from the conference at Jerusalem to the Gentiles, Acts 15:20, 29; and its being so often prohibited in the epistles. The word is sometimes used where 'adultery' is the sense. Matt. 5:32; Matt. 19:9. It often has in the O.T. a symbolical reference to the turning from God to idols. 2 Chr. 21:11, 13; Isa. 23:17; Ezek. 16:15, 26, 29; and in the N.T. to unfaithful intercourse with Babylon, the mother of harlots. Rev. 14:8; Rev. 17:2, 4; Rev. 18:3, 9.
Verses
- Exodus 20:14Thou shalt not commit adultery.
- Leviticus 18:20And thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbour's wife, to become unclean with her.
- Leviticus 20:10And a man that committeth adultery with a man's wife, who committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, — the adulterer and the adulteress shall certainly be put to death.
- Deuteronomy 22:20–2920But if this thing is true, [and] virginity hath not been found with the damsel; 21then they shall bring out the damsel unto the entrance of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die because she hath wrought infamy in Israel, committing fornication in her father's house; and thou shalt put evil away from thy midst. 22If a man be found lying with a man's wife, they shall both of them die, the man that lay with the woman, and the woman; and thou shalt put away evil from Israel. 23If a damsel, a virgin, be betrothed to some one, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her, 24then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and stone them with stones that they die; the damsel, because she cried not, [being] in the city, and the man, because he hath humbled his neighbour's wife; and thou shalt put evil away from thy midst. 25But if a man find a betrothed damsel in the field, and the man force her, and lie with her, then the man only that lay with her shall die; 26and unto the damsel thou shalt do nothing there is in the damsel no sin worthy of death; for as when a man riseth against his neighbour, and murdereth him, so is this matter; 27for he found her in the field, the betrothed damsel cried, and there was no one to save her. 28If a man find a damsel, a virgin, who is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found, 29then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father fifty [shekels] of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he hath humbled her; he may not put her away all his days.