What constitutes sexual immorality?

[rahmiyn]

There have been so many threads debating homosexuality in particular, but for a Christian, what constitutes sexual immorality? Someone said in another post that the first person you have sex with is considered your spouse in God's eyes. All other encounters then are adultery or fornication. If so, is everyone committing the sin of fornication who has ever had more than one partner?

Perhaps an even more important question, for those who believe homosexuality is not a sin, are you talking about the same thing: having one partner for life? Are then all other homosexual acts a sin in your eyes too?

 

[timlamb]

There have been so many threads debating homosexuality in particular, but for a Christian, what constitutes sexual immorality? Someone said in another post that the first person you have sex with is considered your spouse in God's eyes. All other encounters then are adultery or fornication. If so, is everyone committing the sin of fornication who has ever had more than one partner?

Perhaps an even more important question, for those who believe homosexuality is not a sin, are you talking about the same thing: having one partner for life? Are then all other homosexual acts a sin in your eyes too?

If you don't take the bible litterally you might be doing anything ad it would be ok. I hope you have read your bible and know this already but scriptures only speak of sex being right when it is one man, one woman, after the marriage covenant. All else is immorality.

 

[Stinker]

It is my understanding that we should not be using this word in our Bible discussions because it is a secular term, not a Biblical term. The word so many Christian teachers mistakenly mis-translate as sexual immorality is pornia which has a much more restrictive meaning.

 

[timlamb]

It is my understanding that we should not be using this word in our Bible discussions because it is a secular term, not a Biblical term. The word so many Christian teachers mistakenly mis-translate as sexual immorality is pornia which has a much more restrictive meaning.

And you did not answer anyones question.

I did my best to answer the OP. There is such a thing as immorality in the eyes of God and I think the bible is explicit. My Opinion...

 

[*Starlight*]

In my opinion, sexual immorality is a sexual act that harms someone... that can, for example, include rape, or having sex with someone else when you already have a partner.

 

[rahmiyn]

If you don't take the bible litterally you might be doing anything ad it would be ok. I hope you have read your bible and know this already but scriptures only speak of sex being right when it is one man, one woman, after the marriage covenant. All else is immorality.

I do agree with this, but so few people can actually claim such today. What about them? Are all lost (which would include me?)

 

[LJSGM]

sexual immorality, fornication, pornia, the definition is sex or sex acts outside the marriage bed.

 

[timlamb]

I do agree with this, but so few people can actually claim such today. What about them? Are all lost (which would include me?)

I understand the difficulties onvolved and as we saw with King David you can make mistakes and still be a man after God's own heart. As far as being lost? Repent and be forgiven; the only answer for that. Make your relationship right before the Lord.

 

[Webers_Home]

.
†. Lev 19:29 . . Do not defile your daughter by making her a prostitute, or the land will be filled with promiscuity and detestable wickedness.

Webster's defines a prostitute as: a woman who engages in promiscuous sexual intercourse— especially for money; viz: a harlot. That definition clearly implicates live-in girl friends, and porn stars too.

A common Old Testament word in the KJV for promiscuous women is harlot which suffices for both professional harlots and loose women.

A girl-gone-wild who enters marriage under the false pretense of virginity merits the death penalty.

†. Deut 22:20-21 . . But suppose the man's accusations are true, and her virginity could not be proved. In such cases, the judges must take the girl to the door of her father's home, and the men of the town will stone her to death. She has committed a disgraceful crime in Israel by being promiscuous while living in her parents' home. Such evil must be cleansed from among you.

The common koiné Greek word for sexual immorality in the New Testament is porneia which means: (you guessed it) harlotry— including adultery and incest.

Harlotry has become pandemic in America and nobody seems to be ashamed of it either. People sleep around on television, in the oval office, in novels, in the movies, and in real life as if harlotry is no more sinful than waking up in the morning and brushing your teeth. Free love seems almost taken for granted anymore in romance.

One of my favorite movie lines is Clint Eastwood's from Heartbreak Ridge that goes: Hey good lookin', do you fool around on the first date? Well, these days, pretty good numbers of women do; even "Christian" women.

Okay, so we've established that hard-core harlotry is sin, but what about soft-core: things like fondling, caressing, oral sex, full frontal naked embracing; and such?

Since that kind of making-out is not specifically addressed in the Bible, it falls into the category of a "debatable" issue.

†. Rom 14:1 . . Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters.

What does it mean to have a "weak" faith? Well it simply means you are not sure one way or the other whether something is okay for Christians.

†. Rom 14:5 . . Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.

So then, even if fondling, caressing, oral sex, full frontal naked embracing, and such are perfectly okay; they would be sin for you if you did them in doubt.

†. Rom 14:14 . . But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean.

In other words; stay in your comfort zone until such a time as you're confident it is okay to proceed without compromising your integrity.

†. Rom 14:22-23 . . So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.

C.L.I.F.F.
/

 

[Stinker]

Originally Posted by Stinker

It is my understanding that we should not be using this word in our Bible discussions because it is a secular term, not a Biblical term. The word so many Christian teachers mistakenly mis-translate as sexual immorality is pornia which has a much more restrictive meaning.
​

And you did not answer anyones question.

I did my best to answer the OP. There is such a thing as immorality in the eyes of God and I think the bible is explicit. My Opinion...

There is a reason why the New Testament was written in the laguage that it was, which was the Koine Greek language. It became a dead language. Therefore, we can trace back nearly all the words to find out what they meant in that time.

I think also that common sense should be employed as well. This is why we cannot allow the word phrase sexual immorality to be translated from the word pornia. If we allow this to be done.....we allow such a broad definition to include such things as watching an R-rated movie to be included in it. We allow the wife's or husband's subjective definition of masturbating too much to be included. So, either of them could claim that they have Biblical grounds to divorce their spouse......fornication (pornia)- sexual immorality!

 

[BjorkIsCool]

If you turn the question around and ask what doesn't constitute sexual immorality, this: sex between one certain man and one certain women, they have no objective or subjective sex with anybody else and sex doesn't become an obsession to them i.e. a god.

Everything else then is sexual immorality. But maybe that's too simple an answer.

 

[timlamb]

Originally Posted by Stinker

It is my understanding that we should not be using this word in our Bible discussions because it is a secular term, not a Biblical term. The word so many Christian teachers mistakenly mis-translate as sexual immorality is pornia which has a much more restrictive meaning.
​

There is a reason why the New Testament was written in the laguage that it was, which was the Koine Greek language. It became a dead language. Therefore, we can trace back nearly all the words to find out what they meant in that time.

I think also that common sense should be employed as well. This is why we cannot allow the word phrase sexual immorality to be translated from the word pornia. If we allow this to be done.....we allow such a broad definition to include such things as watching an R-rated movie to be included in it. We allow the wife's or husband's subjective definition of masturbating too much to be included. So, either of them could claim that they have Biblical grounds to divorce their spouse......fornication (pornia)- sexual immorality!

I find something wrong with the fact that you discredit it's use but never say what Pornia means in your opinion. Most of us get the meaning of sexual immoralty from scripture and where it says sexual relations belong, inside the covenant of marriage.

 

[timlamb]

If you turn the question around and ask what doesn't constitute sexual immorality, this: sex between one certain man and one certain women, they have no objective or subjective sex with anybody else and sex doesn't become an obsession to them i.e. a god.

Everything else then is sexual immorality. But maybe that's too simply an answer.

Great responce!

 

[*Starlight*]

But maybe that's too simply an answer.

Or maybe it's wrong...

 

[Stinker]

Originally Posted by Stinker

It is my understanding that we should not be using this word in our Bible discussions because it is a secular term, not a Biblical term. The word so many Christian teachers mistakenly mis-translate as sexual immorality is pornia which has a much more restrictive meaning.
​

There is a reason why the New Testament was written in the laguage that it was, which was the Koine Greek language. It became a dead language. Therefore, we can trace back nearly all the words to find out what they meant in that time.

I think also that common sense should be employed as well. This is why we cannot allow the word phrase sexual immorality to be translated from the word pornia. If we allow this to be done.....we allow such a broad definition to include such things as watching an R-rated movie to be included in it. We allow the wife's or husband's subjective definition of masturbating too much to be included. So, either of them could claim that they have Biblical grounds to divorce their spouse......fornication (pornia)- sexual immorality!

I find something wrong with the fact that you discredit it's use but never say what Pornia means in your opinion. Most of us get the meaning of sexual immoralty from scripture and where it says sexual relations belong, inside the covenant of marriage.

The word pornia is from the Latin word fornix, which meant 'under the arch' or 'vault' . It is where pagan priestesses solicited money for their sacred 'services'.

In the New Testament time, males were married at about 16 years of age. If he had sexual intercourse with another married woman, he was said to have committed adultery against his wife. He was considered to have been an adulterer.

If he, or even an unmarried man, went to the pagan temple to have sexual intercourse with one of the priests or priestesses, he was considered to have been a fornicator. If a married, or an unmarried woman, went to the pagan temple to have sexual intercourse with one of the priests, she was considered to have been a fornicator.




1 Corinthians 6:13-16 (King James Version)

13Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.
14And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.
15Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.
16What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.

 

[BjorkIsCool]

Or maybe it's wrong...

Meant to say simple, not simply. What else do you think isn't sexual immorality?

 

[mnphysicist]

In regards to sexual immorality, its a tricky deal, and imho very culturally dependent. In the Greek, a literal read across any number of words that fall under "sexual immorality" ends up with much much narrower range of definitions than we have today. I dont know that cultural, as well as expansion over time of scripture is cool, but alas it is what contemporary translations have evolved into.

As far as the multiple partners thing and adultery... again, we run into cultural issues. An exceedingly literal view of scriptures, in the time the scriptures were written, whether right or wrong, would seem to lead one towards the view that adultery is a problem for anyone other than the first (with certain exceptions for divorce, death of spouse etc).

 

[timlamb]

Originally Posted by Stinker

It is my understanding that we should not be using this word in our Bible discussions because it is a secular term, not a Biblical term. The word so many Christian teachers mistakenly mis-translate as sexual immorality is pornia which has a much more restrictive meaning.
​

There is a reason why the New Testament was written in the laguage that it was, which was the Koine Greek language. It became a dead language. Therefore, we can trace back nearly all the words to find out what they meant in that time.

I think also that common sense should be employed as well. This is why we cannot allow the word phrase sexual immorality to be translated from the word pornia. If we allow this to be done.....we allow such a broad definition to include such things as watching an R-rated movie to be included in it. We allow the wife's or husband's subjective definition of masturbating too much to be included. So, either of them could claim that they have Biblical grounds to divorce their spouse......fornication (pornia)- sexual immorality!




The word pornia is from the Latin word fornix, which meant 'under the arch' or 'vault' . It is where pagan priestesses solicited money for their sacred 'services'.

In the New Testament time, males were married at about 16 years of age. If he had sexual intercourse with another married woman, he was said to have committed adultery against his wife. He was considered to have been an adulterer.

If he, or even an unmarried man, went to the pagan temple to have sexual intercourse with one of the priests or priestesses, he was considered to have been a fornicator. If a married, or an unmarried woman, went to the pagan temple to have sexual intercourse with one of the priests, she was considered to have been a fornicator.




1 Corinthians 6:13-16 (King James Version)

13Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.
14And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.
15Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.
16What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.

Hey, I approve, it works for me. And then Romans 1 takes sexual imorality even deeper. Pretty well covered I think.

 

[timlamb]

In regards to sexual immorality, its a tricky deal, and imho very culturally dependent. In the Greek, a literal read across any number of words that fall under "sexual immorality" ends up with much much narrower range of definitions than we have today. I dont know that cultural, as well as expansion over time of scripture is cool, but alas it is what contemporary translations have evolved into.

As far as the multiple partners thing and adultery... again, we run into cultural issues. An exceedingly literal view of scriptures, in the time the scriptures were written, whether right or wrong, would seem to lead one towards the view that adultery is a problem for anyone other than the first (with certain exceptions for divorce, death of spouse etc).

Sexual immorality to a Christian should be scriptural, not cultural!

 

[*Starlight*]

Meant to say simple, not simply. What else do you think isn't sexual immorality?

It makes sense to me that any sexual relationship that's based on love and doesn't result in anyone's harm isn't immoral.