Q: Is premarital sex “committing adultery?” Where in the Bible does it say that sex is wrong?
A: Okay let me begin with the good news, sex is not wrong…if done in the union of a husband and wife in the Sacrament of Marriage. However, if this sex is happening between two people who are married, but to different people, then this is adultery (and that would be bad) or if this sexual experience is happening between two people who are not married at all, then this is what we call Fornication. And now let us open our Bibles to the following references, shall we…
My dear brothers and sisters we read in Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians (6:9) “Do you not know that the unjust will not inherit the Kingdom of God?” And who are the “unjust” persons? The list begins with the “fornicators.” So then we are to avoid immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the immoral person sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body (6: 18-20).”
Or again he writes in his Letter to the Romans (6:12), “Therefore, sin must not rule over our mortal bodies so that you obey their desires.” And in the Letter to the Colossians (3:5), “Put to death, the, parts of you that are earthly; immorality, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is adultery.” Even the Gospels speak about it in Matthew (15:18-19) and Mark (7:21-23).
This concludes today’s brief look at the scriptural teachings on fornication and the sexual unchaste…now please open your songbooks and let us join in singing “Kumbiah.”
I would encourage you to read these passages on your own and even look up the references your Bible may have to similar passages. If you want to look up the definition of fornication in the Catechism of the Catholic Church it can be found in paragraph 2353.
