What the Bible says about Sexual immorality

Topics chevron-right Sexual immorality

Hebrews 13:4

Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.

4 From love for the badly treated the author turns to love within the marriage bond. The opening expression implies an imperative: "Let marriage be held in honor." "By all" probably means "in all circumstances." Some ascetics held marriage in low esteem, but the author of Hebrews rejects this position. "The marriage bed" is a euphemism for sexual intercourse. He considers the physical side of marriage important and "pure." Contrary to the views of some thinkers in the ancient world, there is nothing defiling about it. Over against honorable marriage he sets the "sexually immoral" and the "adulterer" (a word used for a violation of the marriage bond).

All forms of sexual sin come under the judgment of God. This was a novel view to many in the first century. For them chastity was an unreasonable demand to make. It is one of the unrecognized miracles that Christians were able not only to make this demand but to make it stick. Sexual sinners are likely to go their way, careless of all others. But in the end they will be judged by none less than God.

Read more from Expositors Bible Commentary (Abridged Edition): New Testament

1 Thessalonians 4:3 - 1 Thessalonians 4:5

It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality;

that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable,

not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God;

4:3–5 A major problem for the early church was maintaining sexual purity (1 Cor. 5:1, 9–11). Pagan religions often condoned sexual immorality as part of their rites, and ancient Roman culture had few sexual boundaries. In contrast, Paul strongly urged the Thessalonians not to participate in any sexual activity outside of marriage. He reminded them that the human body is God’s temple and should be kept holy (see 1 Cor. 6:18–20). The body should be honored as created by God and should be sanctified in keeping with its holy purpose. Sexual involvement outside of marriage dishonors God, one’s marriage partner or future spouse, and even one’s own body.

Read more from NKJV Study Bible

Matthew 5:28

28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

5:28 anyone who looks at a woman lustfully. Whereas the law merely said, “You shall not commit adultery,” Jesus demanded, “You shall not want to commit adultery.” Many ancient Jewish moralists condemned lust; some later rabbis even compared extreme lust to adultery. Jesus’ warning here develops the context of the prohibition against adultery in the law: the seventh commandment prohibited adultery, but the tenth commandment warned that one should not even covet one’s neighbor’s wife (Ex 20:17; Dt 5:21). Jesus uses here the same verb as in the standard Greek translation of the tenth commandment. He refers, then, to wanting to have one’s neighbor’s wife. The principle, of course, extends beyond Jesus’ illustration, applying to both genders and to single people, coveting one who might be someone else’s spouse someday.

Read more from NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible