Adultery and fornication are sins committed with the body, but they are different from each other. Adultery is when a married person has sexual relations with someone who is not his or her spouse. Fornication, on the other hand, is having sexual relations outside of marriage; in some contexts it is associated with prostitution because of the origin of the word (fornicāri, which means “to have sexual relations with a prostitute”). The Bible clearly teaches us that having sexual relations outside of marriage is sinful in the eyes of God. Marriage is a sacred union in which a man and a woman voluntarily commit to love each other and to stay together forever. Adultery undermines that promise, and its consequences are deadly for the whole family. Now let God speak to your heart through His Word:
Proverbs 6:32
“But he who commits adultery lacks understanding; He who does so corrupts his own soul”.
Hosea 4:11
“Fornication, wine, and new wine take away judgment”.
Matthew 5:28
“But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to covet her has already committed adultery with her in his heart”.
1 Corinthians 6:13-17
“ … the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God, who raised up the Lord, will also raise us up by His power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not. Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For He says: The two shall become one flesh. But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him”.
1 Corinthians 6:18
“Flee from fornication. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body; but he who fornicates sins against his own body”.
Galatians 5:19-21
“And the works of the flesh are manifest, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorceries, enmities, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, contentions, dissensions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these; concerning which I warn you, as I have told you before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God”.
Ephesians 5:3
“But fornication and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints…”
1 Thessalonians 4:3
“… for this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from fornication…”
