Is it Okay for Christians to Engage in Premarital Sexual Relations Before Marriage?
by Rich Deem

Introduction

Common "wisdom" says that living together in a "trial marriage" is a good way to determine if couples are compatible before marriage. A companion paper, based upon scientific studies, shows that this idea is false. Many Christians seem to have bought into the secular idea that as long as one is "in love" it doesn't matter if couples live together (and engage in premarital sex). The problem is that many times "love" fails, and Christians end up moving from one relationship to another. This paper examines what the Bible says about living together before marriage, for those who claim to be Christians.

Biblical love isn't a feeling

Most people think that love is that elated, "high" feeling we get when we "fall in love." This kind of "love" is something that lasts typically less than a year. Most couples decide to live together during this period of time when their decisions are often based upon emotions and passions. According to the Bible love "rejoices with the truth... always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres... never fails"1 One will notice from this description that love isn't what you get from someone, it is something you give to someone. The Bible confidently says that love never fails, because as long as these things are done, love cannot fail. However, if we are interested in getting rather than giving, then selfishness always succeeds in shipwrecking a relationship.

Sexual relationships and the Bible

Living Together: Myths, Risks & AnswersThe doctrine of keeping sexual relationships within the bounds of marriage is so important that it is spelled out in the second chapter of the first book of the Bible (Genesis 2). The marriage covenant is spelled out in the original narrative that describes the meeting of the first man and first woman:

For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. (Genesis 2:24-25)

The Bible actually encourages married couples to enjoy their sexual relationships within marriage.2 The New Testament confirms that sexual relations within a marriage is not sinful. Paul says that those who marry have not sinned.3 The writer of the book of Hebrews states, "Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure,"4 indicating that sexual relations within marriage are "pure" and not sinful.

Old Testament laws about sex

The Bible has a lot of bad things to say about being a harlot.5 In fact, it was so frowned upon in Jewish society that, among all the laws in the Old Testament, spiritual unfaithfulness (idolatry) is compared to harlotry.6 These days, people tend to think of harlots as those who engage in multiple sexual relationships. However, the Old Testament indicates that engaging in even one sexual relationship before marriage (i.e., not being a virgin) makes one a harlot.7 Engaging in consensual sexual relations with a married person was a capital offense, and those who were found guilty (both the male and female) were executed.8 Consensual sexual relations between an unmarried man and unmarried woman resulted in the man being fined and required to marry the woman without the possibility of any future divorce.9 Essentially, there was no premarital sex, since once you were caught you were married.

New Testament laws about sex

The New Testament confirms the laws of the Old Testament. Specifically, adultery is condemned,10 even including mental adultery,11 incest,12 and homosexuality.13 Other sexual sins, including premarital sex, are condemned through a couple Greek words (the original language of the New Testament) that can refer to a number of sexual sins, depending upon context. These words are porneia14 and pornos,15 from which the English word "pornography" is derived. English Bibles will translate these words different ways, so it is important to know some of the ways in which the words are translated. For example, the New American Standard translates the words as "fornication"16 (e.g., premarital sexual relations) and sometimes as "immoral persons,"17 which seems to be some kind of generic immorality, although it specifically refers to sexual immorality. Other English words used to describe premarital sex include "unchastity."18 The fact that these words refer to premarital sexual relations can be seen in the Pharisees answer to Jesus, where they insinuated that He was born of fornication.16 The severity of this kind of sin can be seen in the descriptions of what will happen to people who practice sexual immorality at the judgment.17

Fireproof DVDThe New Testament directly states that sexual activity is to be restricted to marriage in the book of Hebrews, where it condemns both adultery (engaging in sexual relations with a non-spouse while married) and fornication (engaging in sexual relations before marriage):

Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge. (Hebrews 13:4)

Conclusion Top of page

Premarital sexual relationships are strongly condemned in both the Old Testament and New Testament of the Bible. Therefore, Christians who engage in premarital sex are breaking God's laws and are not following Jesus Christ. Under such practices, God is not honored, and both yours and your partner's walk with Christ is hampered. In addition, one's witness for Jesus is nullified, since even non-believers know that living together before marriage is not what a Christian should do. If you are involved in this kind of relationship, you need to repent and start living according to biblical standards. It is not okay for a Christian to keep living a sinful lifestyle, including sexual intimacy before marriage.

References Top of page

  1. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:1-13)
  2. Let your fountain be blessed, And rejoice in the wife of your youth. As a loving hind and a graceful doe, Let her breasts satisfy you at all times; Be exhilarated always with her love. (Proverbs 5:18-19)
  3. But if you do marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. But those who marry will face many troubles in this life, and I want to spare you this. (1 Corinthians 7:28)
  4. Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. (Hebrews 13:4)
  5. "But if this charge is true, that the girl was not found a virgin, then they shall bring out the girl to the doorway of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death because she has committed an act of folly in Israel by playing the harlot in her father's house; thus you shall purge the evil from among you. (Deuteronomy 22:20-21)
    But they said, "Should he treat our sister as a harlot?" (Genesis 34:31)
    Now it was about three months later that Judah was informed, "Your daughter-in-law Tamar has played the harlot, and behold, she is also with child by harlotry." Then Judah said, "Bring her out and let her be burned!" (Genesis 38:24)
    'Do not profane your daughter by making her a harlot, so that the land will not fall to harlotry and the land become full of lewdness. (Leviticus 19:29)
    'They shall not take a woman who is profaned by harlotry, nor shall they take a woman divorced from her husband; for he is holy to his God. (Leviticus 21:7)
    'Also the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by harlotry, she profanes her father; she shall be burned with fire. (Leviticus 21:9)
    'A widow, or a divorced woman, or one who is profaned by harlotry, these he may not take; but rather he is to marry a virgin of his own people, (Leviticus 21:14)
    While Israel remained at Shittim, the people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab. (Numbers 25:1)
    "But you trusted in your beauty and played the harlot because of your fame, and you poured out your harlotries on every passer-by who might be willing. (Ezekiel 16:15)
    "Besides all your abominations and harlotries you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare and squirming in your blood. (Ezekiel 16:22)
    "You built yourself a high place at the top of every street and made your beauty abominable, and you spread your legs to every passer-by to multiply your harlotry. (Ezekiel 16:25)
    "You also played the harlot with the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors, and multiplied your harlotry to make Me angry. (Ezekiel 16:26)
    "You also multiplied your harlotry with the land of merchants, Chaldea, yet even with this you were not satisfied."'" (Ezekiel 16:29)
    "Men give gifts to all harlots, but you give your gifts to all your lovers to bribe them to come to you from every direction for your harlotries. (Ezekiel 16:33)
    "Thus you are different from those women in your harlotries, in that no one plays the harlot as you do, because you give money and no money is given you; thus you are different." (Ezekiel 16:34)
    "She did not forsake her harlotries from the time in Egypt; for in her youth men had lain with her, and they handled her virgin bosom and poured out their lust on her. (Ezekiel 23:8)
    "Now her sister Oholibah saw this, yet she was more corrupt in her lust than she, and her harlotries were more than the harlotries of her sister. (Ezekiel 23:11)
    "So she increased her harlotries. And she saw men portrayed on the wall, images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion, (Ezekiel 23:14)
    "The Babylonians came to her to the bed of love and defiled her with their harlotry. And when she had been defiled by them, she became disgusted with them. (Ezekiel 23:17)
    "She uncovered her harlotries and uncovered her nakedness; then I became disgusted with her, as I had become disgusted with her sister. (Ezekiel 23:18)
    "Yet she multiplied her harlotries, remembering the days of her youth, when she played the harlot in the land of Egypt. (Ezekiel 23:19)
    'They will deal with you in hatred, take all your property, and leave you naked and bare. And the nakedness of your harlotries will be uncovered, both your lewdness and your harlotries. (Ezekiel 23:29)
    Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they played the harlot after other gods and bowed themselves down to them. They turned aside quickly from the way in which their fathers had walked in obeying the commandments of the LORD; they did not do as their fathers. (Judges 2:17)
    Gideon made it into an ephod, and placed it in his city, Ophrah, and all Israel played the harlot with it there, so that it became a snare to Gideon and his household. (Judges 8:27)
    Then it came about, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the sons of Israel again played the harlot with the Baals, and made Baal-berith their god. (Judges 8:33)
    But his concubine played the harlot against him, and she went away from him to her father's house in Bethlehem in Judah, and was there for a period of four months. (Judges 19:2)
    For on account of a harlot one is reduced to a loaf of bread, And an adulteress hunts for the precious life. (Proverbs 6:26)
    And behold, a woman comes to meet him, Dressed as a harlot and cunning of heart. (Proverbs 7:10)
    For a harlot is a deep pit And an adulterous woman is a narrow well. (Proverbs 23:27)
    A man who loves wisdom makes his father glad, But he who keeps company with harlots wastes his wealth. (Proverbs 29:3)
    "But you trusted in your beauty and played the harlot because of your fame, and you poured out your harlotries on every passer-by who might be willing. (Ezekiel 16:15)
    "You took some of your clothes, made for yourself high places of various colors and played the harlot on them, which should never come about nor happen. (Ezekiel 16:16)
    "You also took your beautiful jewels made of My gold and of My silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself male images that you might play the harlot with them. (Ezekiel 16:17)
    "You also played the harlot with the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors, and multiplied your harlotry to make Me angry. (Ezekiel 16:26)
    "Moreover, you played the harlot with the Assyrians because you were not satisfied; you played the harlot with them and still were not satisfied. (Ezekiel 16:28)
    "How languishing is your heart," declares the Lord GOD, "while you do all these things, the actions of a bold-faced harlot. (Ezekiel 16:30)
    "Men give gifts to all harlots, but you give your gifts to all your lovers to bribe them to come to you from every direction for your harlotries. (Ezekiel 16:33)
    "Thus you are different from those women in your harlotries, in that no one plays the harlot as you do, because you give money and no money is given you; thus you are different." (Ezekiel 16:34)
    Therefore, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD. (Ezekiel 16:35)
    "They will burn your houses with fire and execute judgments on you in the sight of many women. Then I will stop you from playing the harlot, and you will also no longer pay your lovers. (Ezekiel 16:41)
    and they played the harlot in Egypt. They played the harlot in their youth; there their breasts were pressed and there their virgin bosom was handled. (Ezekiel 23:3)
    "Oholah played the harlot while she was Mine; and she lusted after her lovers, after the Assyrians, her neighbors, (Ezekiel 23:5)
    "Then I said concerning her who was worn out by adulteries, 'Will they now commit adultery with her when she is thus?' (Ezekiel 23:43)
    "But they went in to her as they would go in to a harlot. Thus they went in to Oholah and to Oholibah, the lewd women. (Ezekiel 23:44)
    When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, "Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry; for the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the LORD." (Hosea 1:2)
    "For their mother has played the harlot; She who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, 'I will go after my lovers, Who give me my bread and my water, My wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.' (Hosea 2:5)
    Then I said to her, "You shall stay with me for many days. You shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man; so I will also be toward you." (Hosea 3:3)
    I will not punish your daughters when they play the harlot Or your brides when they commit adultery, For the men themselves go apart with harlots And offer sacrifices with temple prostitutes; So the people without understanding are ruined. (Hosea 4:14)
    Their liquor gone, They play the harlot continually; Their rulers dearly love shame. (Hosea 4:18)
    I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from Me; For now, O Ephraim, you have played the harlot, Israel has defiled itself. (Hosea 5:3)
    "They have also cast lots for My people, Traded a boy for a harlot And sold a girl for wine that they may drink. (Joel 3:3)
    "Therefore, thus says the LORD, 'Your wife will become a harlot in the city, your sons and your daughters will fall by the sword, your land will be parceled up by a measuring line and you yourself will die upon unclean soil. Moreover, Israel will certainly go from its land into exile.'" (Amos 7:17)
  6. otherwise you might make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they would play the harlot with their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and someone might invite you to eat of his sacrifice, (Exodus 34:15)
    and you might take some of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters might play the harlot with their gods and cause your sons also to play the harlot with their gods. (Exodus 34:16)
    "They shall no longer sacrifice their sacrifices to the goat demons with which they play the harlot. This shall be a permanent statute to them throughout their generations."' (Leviticus 17:7)
    then I Myself will set My face against that man and against his family, and I will cut off from among their people both him and all those who play the harlot after him, by playing the harlot after Molech. (Leviticus 20:5)
    'As for the person who turns to mediums and to spiritists, to play the harlot after them, I will also set My face against that person and will cut him off from among his people. (Leviticus 20:6)
    "It shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the LORD, so as to do them and not follow after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you played the harlot, (Numbers 15:39)
    then they shall bring out the girl to the doorway of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death because she has committed an act of folly in Israel by playing the harlot in her father's house; thus you shall purge the evil from among you. (Deuteronomy 22:21)
    "You shall not bring the hire of a harlot or the wages of a dog into the house of the LORD your God for any votive offering, for both of these are an abomination to the LORD your God. (Deuteronomy 23:18)
    The LORD said to Moses, "Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers; and this people will arise and play the harlot with the strange gods of the land, into the midst of which they are going, and will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them. (Deuteronomy 31:16)
    Then Joshua the son of Nun sent two men as spies secretly from Shittim, saying, "Go, view the land, especially Jericho." So they went and came into the house of a harlot whose name was Rahab, and lodged there. (Joshua 2:1)
    Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a valiant warrior, but he was the son of a harlot. And Gilead was the father of Jephthah. (Judges 11:1)
    But they acted treacherously against the God of their fathers and played the harlot after the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God had destroyed before them. (1 Chronicles 5:25)
    Moreover, he made high places in the mountains of Judah, and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to play the harlot and led Judah astray. (2 Chronicles 21:11)
    but have walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and have caused Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to play the harlot as the house of Ahab played the harlot, and you have also killed your brothers, your own family, who were better than you, (2 Chronicles 21:13)
    Thus they became unclean in their practices, And played the harlot in their deeds. (Psalms 106:39)
    How the faithful city has become a harlot, She who was full of justice! Righteousness once lodged in her, But now murderers. (Isaiah 1:21)
    Now in that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years like the days of one king. At the end of seventy years it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the harlot: (Isaiah 23:15)
    Take your harp, walk about the city, O forgotten harlot; Pluck the strings skillfully, sing many songs, That you may be remembered. (Isaiah 23:16)
    It will come about at the end of seventy years that the LORD will visit Tyre. Then she will go back to her harlot's wages and will play the harlot with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth. (Isaiah 23:17)
    "But come here, you sons of a sorceress, Offspring of an adulterer and a prostitute. (Isaiah 57:3)
    "For long ago I broke your yoke And tore off your bonds; But you said, 'I will not serve!' For on every high hill And under every green tree You have lain down as a harlot. (Jeremiah 2:20)
    God says, "If a husband divorces his wife And she goes from him And belongs to another man, Will he still return to her? Will not that land be completely polluted? But you are a harlot with many lovers; Yet you turn to Me," declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 3:1)
    "Therefore the showers have been withheld, And there has been no spring rain. Yet you had a harlot's forehead; You refused to be ashamed. (Jeremiah 3:3)
    Then the LORD said to me in the days of Josiah the king, "Have you seen what faithless Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she was a harlot there. (Jeremiah 3:6)
    "And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a writ of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and was a harlot also. (Jeremiah 3:8)
    "Why should I pardon you? Your sons have forsaken Me And sworn by those who are not gods. When I had fed them to the full, They committed adultery And trooped to the harlot's house. (Jeremiah 5:7)
    "Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations to which they will be carried captive, how I have been hurt by their adulterous hearts which turned away from Me, and by their eyes which played the harlot after their idols; and they will loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils which they have committed, for all their abominations. (Ezekiel 6:9)
    "Moreover, you took your sons and daughters whom you had borne to Me and sacrificed them to idols to be devoured. Were your harlotries so small a matter? (Ezekiel 16:20)
    Thus says the Lord GOD, "Because your lewdness was poured out and your nakedness uncovered through your harlotries with your lovers and with all your detestable idols, and because of the blood of your sons which you gave to idols, (Ezekiel 16:36)
    "She bestowed her harlotries on them, all of whom were the choicest men of Assyria; and with all whom she lusted after, with all their idols she defiled herself. (Ezekiel 23:7)
    "Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, 'Because you have forgotten Me and cast Me behind your back, bear now the punishment of your lewdness and your harlotries.'" (Ezekiel 23:35)
    "When you built your shrine at the beginning of every street and made your high place in every square, in disdaining money, you were not like a harlot. (Ezekiel 16:31)
    "Therefore, say to the house of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Will you defile yourselves after the manner of your fathers and play the harlot after their detestable things? (Ezekiel 20:30)
    "Yet she multiplied her harlotries, remembering the days of her youth, when she played the harlot in the land of Egypt. (Ezekiel 23:19)
    'These things will be done to you because you have played the harlot with the nations, because you have defiled yourself with their idols. (Ezekiel 23:30)
    They will eat, but not have enough; They will play the harlot, but not increase, Because they have stopped giving heed to the LORD. (Hosea 4:10)
    My people consult their wooden idol, and their diviner's wand informs them; For a spirit of harlotry has led them astray, And they have played the harlot, departing from their God. (Hosea 4:12)
    They offer sacrifices on the tops of the mountains And burn incense on the hills, Under oak, poplar and terebinth, Because their shade is pleasant. Therefore your daughters play the harlot And your brides commit adultery. (Hosea 4:13)
    Though you, Israel, play the harlot, Do not let Judah become guilty; Also do not go to Gilgal, Or go up to Beth-aven And take the oath: "As the LORD lives!" (Hosea 4:15)
    Do not rejoice, O Israel, with exultation like the nations! For you have played the harlot, forsaking your God. You have loved harlots' earnings on every threshing floor. (Hosea 9:1)
    All of her idols will be smashed, All of her earnings will be burned with fire And all of her images I will make desolate, For she collected them from a harlot's earnings, And to the earnings of a harlot they will return. (Micah 1:7)
    All because of the many harlotries of the harlot, The charming one, the mistress of sorceries, Who sells nations by her harlotries And families by her sorceries. (Nahum 3:4)
  7. "But if this charge is true, that the girl was not found a virgin, then they shall bring out the girl to the doorway of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death because she has committed an act of folly in Israel by playing the harlot in her father's house; thus you shall purge the evil from among you. (Deuteronomy 22:20-21)
  8. "If a man is found lying with a married woman, then both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman; thus you shall purge the evil from Israel. If there is a girl who is a virgin engaged to a man, and another man finds her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city and you shall stone them to death; the girl, because she did not cry out in the city, and the man, because he has violated his neighbor's wife. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you." (Deuteronomy 22:22-24)
    But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night, and said to him, "Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is married." (Genesis 20:3)
  9. "If a man finds a girl who is a virgin, who is not engaged, and seizes her and lies with her and they are discovered, (Deuteronomy 22:28)
    then the man who lay with her shall give to the girl's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall become his wife because he has violated her; he cannot divorce her all his days. (Deuteronomy 22:29)
  10. >but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. (Matthew 5:32)
    "And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery." (Matthew 19:9)
    And He said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her; and if she herself divorces her husband and marries another man, she is committing adultery." (Mark 10:11-12)
    "Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries one who is divorced from a husband commits adultery. (Luke 16:18)
  11. "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. (Matthew 15:19)
    "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, (Mark 7:21)
  12. It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father's wife. (1 Corinthians 5:1)
  13. Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders (1 Corinthians 6:9)
    In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire. (Jude 1:7)
    Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. (Romans 1:24-27)
  14. πόρνος porneia (Strong's G4202)
    Thayer's Greek Definitions:
    1. illicit sexual intercourse
      1. adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism, intercourse with animals etc.
      2. sexual intercourse with close relatives; Lev. 18
      3. sexual intercourse with a divorced man or woman; Mark 10:11,Mark 10:12
    2. metaphorically the worship of idols
      1. of the defilement of idolatry, as incurred by eating the sacrifices offered to idols
    Part of Speech: noun feminine
    A Related Word by Thayer’s/Strong’s Number: from G4203
    Citing in TDNT: 6:579, 918
  15. πόρνος pornos (Strong's G4205)
    Thayer's Greek Definitions:
    1. a man who prostitutes his body to another’s lust for hire
    2. a male prostitute
    3. a man who indulges in unlawful sexual intercourse, a fornicator
    Part of Speech: noun masculine
    A Related Word by Thayer’s/Strong’s Number: from pernemi (to sell, akin to the base of G4097)
    Citing in TDNT: 6:579, 918
  16. "You are doing the deeds of your father." They said to Him, "We were not born of fornication; we have one Father: God." (John 8:41)
    "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. (Matthew 15:19)
    "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, (Mark 7:21)
    but that we write to them that they abstain from things contaminated by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood. (Acts 15:20)
    that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication; if you keep yourselves free from such things, you will do well. Farewell." (Acts 15:29)
    "But concerning the Gentiles who have believed, we wrote, having decided that they should abstain from meat sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication." (Acts 21:25)
    Or 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 effeminate, nor homosexuals, (1 Corinthians 6:9)
    Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge. (Hebrews 13:4)
    Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. (Romans 13:13)
    For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; (1 Thessalonians 4:3)
  17. I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler--not even to eat with such a one. (1 Corinthians 5:9-11)
    Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. (1 Corinthians 6:18)
    For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. (Ephesians 5:5)
    realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, (1 Timothy 1:9-10)
    "But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." (Revelation 21:8)
    Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying. (Revelation 22:15)
  18. but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. (Matthew 5:32)

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http://www.godandscience.org/doctrine/fornication.html
Last Modified July 12, 2006

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