Fornication and Adultery Seem Socially Accepted Now. Are They Still Considered Sins by God?

Question

Sex before marriage, sex with another person's spouse, lusting after another person if you are married-----these are still sins, right?

Answer 1

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."

Answer 2

Yes, they are still considered sins. God's principles never change. What he viewed as wrong thousands of years ago he still views as wrong today. Hebrews 13:4 says, "Let marriage be honorable among all, and the marriage bed be without defilement, for God will judge fornicators and adulterers." So even in the first century, when the Mosaic Law was no longer in effect, Paul made clear that God views fornication and adultery as wrong and a grave sin.

Answer 3

To "Q & A MAN": Your argument isn't very valid. When a woman has conceived a child, the baby, of course, isn't immediately fully grown. It starts off as a fetus without all of the bodily systems that you would see in a human. Also, even when the child is born, it continues to grow. The child even ends up with more bones than it once had; certain functions of an infant's brain get weaker as they get older too because they end up being obsolete. As we grow, our cells continuously multiply causing us to get greater in size, so the theory that we all started from a single celled organism isn't too far fetched. Not to mention, a lot of microorganisms that cause illness evolve as our medicine gets more advanced. It's all about the organism adapting so that it can be ahead of the game and insure the continuation of the species. EDIT: Another thing that I forgot to mention is that our "design" isn't even flawless. We're susceptible to mutations and illnesses. Also some parts of the body aren't really necessary; there are some things that our bodies can't naturally recover from as well. Now to the question: The only part of the 'God concept' that seems reasonable is the "let there be light" thing. Maybe this was possibly the big bang. Maybe this universe was created accidentally by some intelligent beings or some natural occurring phenomenon. Perhaps it'll happen again. The idea of an omnipotent being has simply evolved with mankind over time to explain what couldn't be explained. Even now when we can't explain something we associate it with things that we are already familiar with.

Answer 4

Yes, I think of sin as any act or attitude that hurts ourselves, and/or others.

We are all born sinners. We sin every day without even trying. Because of Adam's original sin, we were separated from God.

The good news is that God has provided a way back to Him. Through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus came to the earth for the purpose of becoming the ultimate sacrifice for our sins because He was sinless. He took our sins and was nailed to the cross and died in our place. There is no greater love than His.

Belief and acceptance of Him as our Lord and Savior and repentance (turning away from) of our sins is the only way to God and forgiveness.

When we do our best to follow Jesus' principals, then our lives are changed by Him. Although we will still sin, we want to do what He has told us is best for us because of love for Him. He has provided us (Christians) with the Holy Spirit to help us to do the right thing.

It is only through Jesus that we can be forgiven.

Answer 5

Fornication and Adultry aren't reality socially accepted, they are more like scoially tolerated. Fornication and Adultry are tolerated and practiced in our society but not really accepted. But to answer your question of if they are still sins, the answer is YES. Very much so.

Answer 6

Well the Bible hasn't changed.

People have.

They want their choices to be ok and not have to answer to anybody.

Freedom of Choice is a given but we still need rules to go by.
If you do not want the rules well that is up to each person.

Yes they are still sins and we can be forgiven.
However we will still have to stand before God and be judged on how we lived.

Answer 7

Yup. God stands at odds with society on many counts. Basically, it is not possible to be 'truly happy' having sex outside of marriage in God's view. I KNOW. GAYS DON'T BELIEVE THAT. But God is perfect and unchanging. I'll take His view over that of any man, sinful or otherwise. But homosexuality is NO WORSE than any other sin, and just as forgivable.

Answer 8

God is kind of old-fashioned. Since He is the only God I want or know and I want to please Him I'm fine with doing it His way. According to the Bible I read none of the above are OK with God. There are many religions nowadays that say these things are OK. And of course I would like to believe that. But I don't. It's a choice. Many today are choosing "easy religion." I understand it. But that's like saying I understand why my son has his fingers in the cookie jar but I still don't want them there. God wants me to enjoy my life in healthy ways. It's not that I can't have the cookie, it's that I can have it and a whole bunch if I want ... at the appropriate time and place. He doesn't want me to overdose on cookies or anything else that He made for us to enjoy.

Answer 9

Yes they are still sins. Just because society has accepted these practices doesn't mean that God has. God never changes.

Answer 10

First lets remember that God and his Word does not change...EVER.

Along with all other kinds of sexual immorality, sex before marriage / premarital sex is repeatedly condemned in Scripture (Acts 15:20; Romans 1:29; 1 Corinthians 5:1; 6:13,18; 7:2; 10:8; 2 Corinthians 12:21; Galatians 5:19; Ephesians 5:3; Colossians 3:5; 1 Thessalonians 4:3; Jude 7). The Bible promotes abstinence before marriage. Sex before marriage is just as wrong as adultery and other forms of sexual immorality, because they all involve having sex with someone you are not married to. Sex between a husband and his wife is the only form of sexual relations that God approves of (Hebrews 13:4).

Sex before marriage has become so common for many reasons. Far too often we focus on the “recreation” aspect of sex without recognizing the “re-creation” aspect. Yes, sex is pleasurable. God designed it that way. He wants men and women to enjoy sexual activity (within the confines of marriage). However, the primary purpose of sex is not pleasure, but rather reproduction. God does not outlaw sex before marriage to rob us of pleasure, but to protect us from unwanted pregnancies and children born to parents who do not want them or are not prepared for them. Imagine how much better our world would be if God’s pattern for sex was followed: fewer sexually transmitted diseases, fewer un-wed mothers, fewer unwanted pregnancies, fewer abortions, etc. Abstinence is God’s only policy when it comes to sex before marriage. Abstinence saves lives, protects babies, gives sexual relations the proper value, and most importantly honors God.

Answer 11

Yes.

Judeo-Christian tradition has taught for thousands of years:
1. Single people should be celibate.
2. Married people should be faithful to each other (adultery is wrong).

The Catholic Church recognizes the power of sex when it teaches, "Sexuality affects all aspects of the human person in the unity of his body and soul."

Fornication, sex between an unmarried man and an unmarried woman, is contrary to their human dignity and the dignity of human sexuality.

Chastity means the successful integration of sexuality within the person. A chaste person's body and spirit lives in unity and opposes any behavior that would impair that unity.

The purpose of sex is to bring a husband and wife closer and to create human life.

With love in Christ.