Fornication

If you look up a modern definition of this word, you will find something like this - voluntary sexual intercourse between people who are not married to each other. It describes consensual sexual relations when neither person is married.

Adultery involves at least one person who is married to someone else.

A Biblical definition of fornication can, but not always have, a broader definition more like the use of the term sexual immorality.

Jesus is speaking in Mark chapter 7 (New American Standard Bible) - ²⁰ And He was saying, “That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. ²¹ For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, ²² deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. ²³ All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.”

Acts 15 (NASB) - ²² Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas—Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brethren, ²³ and they sent this letter by them, “The apostles and the brethren who are elders, to the brethren in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia who are from the Gentiles, greetings.

²⁴ “Since we have heard that some of our number to whom we gave no instruction have disturbed you with their words, unsettling your souls, ²⁵ it seemed good to us, having become of one mind, to select men to send to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, ²⁶ men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁷ “Therefore we have sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will also report the same things by word of mouth. ²⁸ “For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these essentials: ²⁹ that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication; if you keep yourselves free from such things, you will do well. Farewell.”

There is in our churches today, a plague of the sin of fornication. It is as if people believe that somehow fornication is now acceptable and no longer a sin. That is not what the Bible says.

TV, movies, music, and society itself have promoted fornication as natural, normal, and acceptable. Parents often turn a blind eye to this behavior in their children, and some parents even promote their children's involvement in it.

Living together before marriage, or apart from marriage, is considered by many in society as natural and normal and not a sin. Fornication is still a sin.

In the New International Version of the Bible (NIV), you will find in the two passages mentioned above, that it uses the term sexual immorality in place of the word fornication.

Sexual immorality is behavior that is not sexual intimacy designed exclusively for a marriage between a husband and wife. Sexual immorality can include adultery, fornication, prostitution, incest, lust, and homosexual behavior.

These behaviors are sin in the Old Testament, and continue to be sin in the New Testament.