What Is Sexual Immorality ?

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

Sexual immorality means neglecting and defying God's law of sexual relations. Learn the practical and spiritual consequences of becoming a slave to your passions when succumbed to the temptation of sexual immorality.

Sexual Immorality in the Bible.

In the Bible, sexual immorality is strongly condemned. In the Old Testament, laws were given to the Israelites designed to discourage sexual immorality. These laws prohibited adultery and other forms of sexual misconduct, such as incest and rape.

In the New Testament, Jesus taught that all sexual relationships outside of marriage are immoral. He also taught that lusting after someone is just as sinful as the act itself. The Bible makes it clear that God expects us to remain sexually pure and faithful to our spouses. God's plan for marriage is beautiful, and He wants us to honor and protect it. If we do not, we risk damaging our relationships with both God and others.

In the New Testament, “sexual immorality” is most frequently translated as porneia, which means “a surrendering of sexual purity,” and is mostly used regarding premarital sexual relations. From this Greek word, we get the English word pornography, deriving from the idea of “selling off.”

Sexual immorality is essentially the “selling off” of sexual purity and involves sexual expression beyond the boundaries of a biblically defined marriage relationship (Matthew 19:4-5).

Sexual Immorality is...

"Interpersonal activity involving sex organs that does not conform to God's revealed laws governing sexuality. The account of creation (Gen 1:1-28) includes reproductive activity as an essential part of the developmental scheme. This important function is given special prominence in the narrative describing the creation of woman (Gen 2:21-24).

In a process cloaked in mystery, God takes an aspect of Adam and fashions it into a genetic counterpart that is specifically female, and which matches Adam's maleness for purposes of reproducing the species

Adam and Eve are thus equal and complementary to one another, of the same physical and genetic composition apart from the slight difference that governs the characteristic nature of male and female fetuses. God tells them to "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill all the earth and subdue it" (Gen 1:28).

Many years ago, in his book Mere Christianity, described our modern battle with human sexuality in the following words:

The Christian idea of marriage is based on Christ’s words that a man and wife are to be regarded as a single organism—for that is what the words “one flesh” would be in modern English. And the Christians believe that when He said this He was not expressing a sentiment but stating a fact-just as one is stating a fact when one says that a lock and its key are one mechanism, or that a violin and a bow are one musical instrument.

The inventor of the human machine was telling us that its two halves, the male and the female, were made to be combined together in pairs, not simply on the sexual level, but totally combined.

The monstrosity of sexual intercourse outside marriage is that those who indulge in it are trying to isolate one kind of union (the sexual) from all the other kinds of union which was intended to go along with it and make up the total union. The Christian attitude does not mean that there is anything wrong about sexual pleasure, any more than about the pleasure of eating.

It means that you must not isolate that pleasure and try to get it by itself, any more than you ought to try to get the pleasures of taste without swallowing and digesting, by chewing things and spitting them out again.

In simple terms, sexual immorality is essentially the engagement in sexual acts outside of the sanctity of marriage, the divine union of creating and fostering life. Continue reading to learn the practical and spiritual consequences of becoming a slave to your passions when succumbing to the temptation of sexual immorality.

Sexual Immorality and Biblical Teachings.

Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. (1 Corinthians 6:18-20).

About Sexual Immorality.

Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. ~ Hebrews 13:4

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God ~ 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5.

But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. ~ Matthew 5:28

But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. ~ Ephesians 5:3

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality ~ Galatians 5:19

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. ~ 1 Corinthians 10:13.

In my experience, those who reject God’s plan for their sexuality are either reviled or affirmed by the people around them. By contrast, Christians ought to say, “We will not treat you in either of those ways. We will not revile you, but we cannot affirm you.

And the reason we won’t revile you is the same reason we can’t affirm you: because of the Bible, because of God’s love, because of His grace, and because of His goodness.” It isn’t easy to speak about God’s wrath. But I’m glad that when I do address it, I can do so knowing that it is wrapped in the amazing news of God’s grace.

In writing to the Corinthians, Paul urged them, “Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6:9–10).

If we’re clear-eyed and honest, we will all find ourselves described somewhere in this list. What’s the answer? Look at the next sentence: “Such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

The hope for the greedy, for the immoral, for all of us is the same hope. The answer is the same answer: the cross of Jesus Christ. He was given up on our behalf so that we might enjoy all the beauty and goodness that is found in Him. This is what we mean when we say that the gospel is for everyone.

It’s a gospel for atheists and agnostics, for Jews and gentiles, for Hindus and Muslims; for the lost and the lonely, for the happy and the successful; for the homosexual or transgender person; for those who experience gender dysphoria and those who don’t—ultimately, for anyone who humbly casts any other identity aside and loses his or her life for Christ’s sake (Matt. 16:25). It is a gospel for the whole world, for the whole world undoubtedly needs it.