Many people engage in sexual practices that not long ago were frowned on, if not condemned, by our society.  This article is intended to determine what the Bible says in regard to several such practices.  We will attempt to answer the following basic questions:

  • Does the Bible indicate that heterosexual sex between two unmarried people is a sin?
  • Is homosexuality condemned by the Bible?
  • Does the Bible condone having sex with prostitutes?

[Note:  When we quote Scripture in this article, we use the wording in the New King James Version of the Bible, except when we are quoting a source that uses a different translation.]

Does the Bible Indicate that Heterosexual Sex between Two Unmarried People Is a Sin?

Although many people, including a number who profess to be Christians, seem to believe that heterosexual sex between an unmarried man and an unmarried woman is not a sin if it is by mutual consent, the Bible does not support this belief.  The Bible refers to such practices as fornication or sexual immorality.  The following scriptures are among those that address this matter:

1 Corinthians 6:9b-10:  Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers . . . will inherit the kingdom of God.

1Corinthians 6:13b:  Now the body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord  . . . .

1 Corinthians 6:18a:  Flee sexual immorality.

1 Corinthians 7:2:  [B]ecause of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.

Galatians 5:19a-21:  Now the acts of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication . . . and the like; of which I tell you . . . that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Ephesians 5:3:  But fornication . . . , 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 should abstain from sexual immorality. . . .

The Bible does not define the terms fornication, fornicators, or sexual immorality.  However, according to Harper’s Bible Dictionary, fornication (or sexual immorality) in the New Testament refers to almost any form of sexual misconduct (i.e., sexual activity outside of a marriage relationship).

The Tyndale Bible Dictionary states that fornication, in a general sense, refers to every kind of illegal sexual intercourse; that is, any intercourse except that between a husband and wife. Tyndale goes on to say that fornication, in a more limited sense, refers to immoral sexual activity between unmarried people.

Strong’s Concordance notes that fornication (or sexual immorality) refers to illicit sexual intercourse in some scriptures, and includes, or is distinguished from, adultery in other scriptures.  Two scriptures that distinguish between fornication and adultery are 1 Corinthians 6:9b-10 and Galatians 5:19a-21, which we previously quoted.

The sources that we have just cited provide some perspectives regarding the meaning of the term fornication.  Now we will define sexual activity and sexual intercourse.

Webster’s Dictionary does not define the term sexual activity, but does define the term sexual intercourse as both “heterosexual intercourse involving penetration of the vagina by the penis” and “intercourse involving genital contact between individuals other than penetration of the vagina by the penis.”  This implies that sexual intercourse involves any type of genital contact by one person with another (i.e., sexual intercourse is not limited to just penetration of the vagina by the penis).

We think it is reasonable to assume that a similar definition of sexual intercourse was in the minds of those who wrote the scriptures cited above.  Therefore, any type of contact with the genitals of someone of the opposite sex should be regarded as sinful if the two people who are involved are not married to each other.

Billy Graham says on pages 264-265 of his book entitled Answers to Life’s Problems, “Many people today have discarded the Bible’s clear teaching on sexual relations outside of marriage, simply because they are absorbed only in their own pleasures and desires.”

In another of Graham’s books, The Secret of Happiness, he declares on pages 106-107,

Immorality is glorified today.  The Scripture teaches that God hates immorality!  The idea of purity is scorned, immorality is laughed at in school – “God is old-fashioned!”  What else can we expect but that thousands of our young people are growing up to be immoral?

And, on page 24 of World Aflame, Graham states, “The Bible teaches from the beginning to the end that adultery and fornication are sin. . . .”

Furthermore, Jesus Christ stated that even if a man does not actually engage in a physical act of sexual intercourse with a woman to whom he is not married, he is guilty of sin if he looks lustfully at her.  In Matthew 5:28, Jesus declares, “I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

This raises the question as to what the term lust means.  According to Strong’s Concordance of the Bible, the Greek word translated in Matthew 5:28 as lust means, “to set the heart upon, i.e., long for. . . .”  And Webster’s Dictionary defines the verb lust as “to have an intense desire or need: crave; specif: to have a sexual urge.”  Therefore, even if the sex act is just in the form of a desire in a person’s mind rather than an actual physical act, it is a sin, so that desire should immediately be terminated.  [Note: For a more thorough discussion regarding lust, click on the title of our article entitled “Is Lust Always a Sin?”]

Is Homosexuality Condemned by the Bible?

Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 teach that it is wrong to engage in homosexual practices.   However, the book of Leviticus also forbids eating certain foods, such as pork and shrimp (Leviticus 11:2-3, 10), but Christians today do not regard these foods as forbidden.  As a result, a number of people argue that if certain foods mentioned in Leviticus are no longer forbidden, it is reasonable to believe that it is no longer necessary to regard homosexual practices as wrong.

However, there are sound reasons to believe that homosexual practices are still wrong.  In this regard, Norman Geisler, Ph.D., and Thomas Howe, M.A., assert on pages 92-93 of their book entitled When Critics Ask,

[I]f the laws against homosexuality were . . . abolished, then rape, incest, and beastiality would not be morally wrong either, since they are condemned in the same chapter with homosexual sins (Lev. 18:6-14, 22-23).

[E]ven in the Jewish levitical law there was a difference in punishment for violating the . . . law of eating pork or shrimp (which was a few days isolation) and that for homosexuality which was capital punishment (Lev. 18:29).  [Note: Other sources indicate the punishment may have been banishment sometimes, rather than execution.]

[T]he moral prohibitions against homosexuality are still enjoined on believers in the NT (Rom. 1:26-27; 1 Cor. 6:9; 1 Tim. 1:10; Jude 7).

Romans 1:18-27, especially verses 26-27, is one of the New Testament scripture passages which strongly indicate that homosexual practices are still to be regarded as sin.  Romans 1:26-27 states with regard to people who practice homosexuality,

For this reason God gave them up to vile passions.  For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature.  Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.

And, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 indicates that, like other people who lead a life of incessant sin, those who engage in sexual activity with a person of the same sex will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Graham asserts on page 172 of The Billy Graham Christian Workers Handbook,

No matter how we may rationalize the practice [of homosexuality] . . . Romans 1 makes it clearly the product of a reprobate mind . . . When we come to Christ, we are called upon to repent of our sins and no longer to practice the ungodly patterns of living.

But, what about people who apparently are born with homosexual tendencies (i.e., people whose homosexual orientation is evidently inherent, rather than a choice)?  Why should they be condemned for a trait that they did not choose to possess?

Although a number of people claim that they were born with homosexual tendencies, adequate proof is lacking. On page 30 of his book entitled Homosexuality and the Christian, Mark A. Yarhouse, PsyD, states,

When we look at the causes of homosexuality, we simply do not know why some people experience same-sex attractions or have a homosexual orientation.  There are probably many factors that contribute in one way or another, with these factors varying from person to person.  In the final analysis, does the cause of same-sex attraction fundamentally change the Christian sexual ethic?  No.  We are all called to live the way that God reveals is good for us in terms of sexuality and sexual behavior.

Even assuming that some people do have an inherent homosexual orientation, the Bible indicates that they will be held accountable for controlling their sexual behavior, just as heterosexual people will be held accountable for controlling their sexual behavior.

Does the Bible Condone Having Sex with Prostitutes?

Hosea 1:2 states, “When the Lord began to speak by Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea: ‘Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry [i.e., a prostitute]. . . .’”  Does this scripture indicate that God condones or excuses prostitution in some situations?

Gleason L. Archer, on page 294 of his book entitled Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties, states,

From the standpoint of Hosea himself, looking back on his domestic tragedy, it was quite clear that when God had encouraged him to marry Gomer . . . who He foreknew would be unfaithful to Hosea after he had married her, this amounted to a divine directive to marry a harlot.  This does not necessarily mean that she had already shown a tendency to sexual promiscuity when he was courting her or that she was already a woman of ill fame when he married her.

Hosea’s unhappy marriage was intended by God to serve as a heartrending illustration of the apostasy of the northern kingdom, whose citizens had turned from the worship of Yahweh [God] to the worship of the various Baals of the degenerate religions of Canaan and Phoenicia.  God, of course, foreknew that Israel would prove false to Him in later centuries, even when He first took her as His covenant wife . . . in the days of Moses at Mount Sinai.  Yet in His marvelous grace He bore with her infidelities, welcomed her back in her times of repentance and revival, and kept faithful to her even though she repeatedly betrayed His love.  Even so was it to be with Hosea.  Gomer would be unblemished in the beginning of their marriage, but would stray from him later on.

In retrospect, therefore, Hosea interpreted God’s encouragement to him to enter into this unhappy match as a directive at the very start: “Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry” . . ., even though the Lord may not have used such shocking terms. . . .

On page 297 of their previously-mentioned book, Geisler and Howe note that the situation regarding God’s knowledge that Gomer would ultimately be unfaithful to Hosea was “similar to the angel of the Lord calling Gideon a ‘mighty man of valor’ before he had fought a single battle,” as recorded in Judges 6:11-12.  They go on to say, “God knew that Gideon would become a great leader in Israel even though he was not yet.”

Subsequently, on the same page of the same book, Geisler and Howe make several other comments about prostitution, including the following:

[T]he passage [in Hosea] does not condone harlotry. . . . The fact that the grave sin of idolatry is depicted as spiritual harlotry reveals God’s disapproval of harlotry.

Hosea was commanded to marry a harlot, not to commit adultery with her.

[T]he command in 1 Corinthians 6:16 not to be joined to a harlot is not a command never to marry a woman who was a harlot.  Rather, the command is directed against those who were having sexual relations outside of the marriage relationship.

Conclusions

The Bible indicates that any type of sex outside of a heterosexual marriage relationship is a sin.  This includes both fornication (i.e., sex between an unmarried man and an unmarried woman) and adultery (i.e., sex between two people, at least one of whom is married to someone else.

Each person will be held accountable for his (or her) actions, not for their tendencies or orientation.  To be obedient to biblical teaching, people with homosexual tendencies need to abstain from sexual intercourse with members of their own sex, just as heterosexual people who are not married to each other should abstain from sexual intercourse with each other.  Furthermore, the Bible provides no support for the belief that a so-called “marriage” between two people of the same sex can provide justification for a homosexual relationship.

Heterosexuals, as well as homosexuals, need to exercise appropriate self-restraint with regard to sex.  As for having sex with prostitutes,  the Bible does not condone it under any circumstances.

Certainly, overcoming sexual temptations can be very difficult.  However, if we are to be the holy person that God wants each of us to be, we must be willing to be chaste in our relationships with other people.  Being chaste necessitates that we allow God, through His Holy Spirit, to control our sexual thoughts, as well as our sexual actions.  [For a discussion regarding being holy, click on “Can Anyone Except God Be Holy?”]