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Fornication and adultery were once, without hesitation, deemed “sinful”—forbidden by God and sources of shame and disgrace to the vast majority of U.S. citizens. Lamentably, such behavior has become commonplace, promoted relentlessly by the industries of entertainment, advertising, fashion, and public education—and even some churches.
God has created us with a sexual instinct and appetite. The terms, fornication and adultery, describe sexual activity outside the boundary God ordained for it. This boundary must therefore be included in any discussion of these terms. Were there no such limitation, there would be no such thing as fornication and adultery, for “…where there is no law, neither is there transgression” (Rom. 4:15). God has issued a dictum on this matter, and as will become clear, those who ignore, reject, and disobey it become thereby guilty of fornication and/or adultery—who, unless they repent, will be subject to the wrath of a holy and just God, our Creator.
The Bible teaches that the only sphere of innocent sexual intercourse involves three elements:
- It must be between a man and a woman (Gen. 1:27–28; 2:24; Mat. 19:6–9; 1 Cor. 7:2; et al.)
- It must be between a man and a woman who are married to each other (1 Cor. 7:2)
- It must be in a marriage that God authorizes (Mat. 19:6)
Jesus stated in the first century that these limitations were God’s will, and that they had been so “from the beginning” (Gen. 2:24), and, by implication, that they would always be so:
And he answered and said, “Have ye not read, that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh? So that they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Mat. 19:4–6).
Jesus used fornication and adultery in the same context:
And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and he that marrieth her when she is put away committeth adultery (v. 9; cf. 5:32).
The two dozen or so “loopholes” that men have devised in an effort to evade New Testament teaching on marriage, divorce, and remarriage are almost altogether traceable to attempts to justify relationships that involve fornication and/or adultery. Our nation has become a moral cesspool as a result.
[Note: I wrote this article for and it was published in the Denton Record-Chronicle, Denton, TX, February 5, 2016.]
Attribution: Printed from TheScripturecache.com, owned and administered by Dub McClish.
