What is fornication and is it bad? The short answer is, fornication is an act of sexual intercourse between two persons who are not engaged or married to one another. And yes, in the Biblical religion, it is bad. Generally fornication is in the family bundle between adultery and divorce. It is basically free sex without limits or boundaries on who, when and where it takes place. The Bible is against this free sexuality because it breaks the bond of marriage and it hurts the image and meaning of love. Therefore any persons professing righteousness in a biblical sense must flee fornication.
Fornication in the Bible can mean two different things: Spiritual and physical. Most of us know the term fornication from the New Testament scriptures, which is understandable. The New Testament emphasizes on fornication more than the Old Testament as we know it today. The Old Testament had the spiritual type of fornication rather than physical type. First, we’ll review the two spiritual forms of fornication. Next we will explore the physically intimate meaning of fornication. Then we will discuss how to prevent ourselves from committing fornication.
Spiritual Fornication: Idolatry
Colosians 3: 5 “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, covetousness, which is idolatry.”
Idolatry is the first form of fornication we are introduced to in the Bible. It isn’t described as fornication but fornication is a type of idolatry. Fornication can also be seen as an obsession over the human sex organs where the individual will live their lives to satisfy the organ to receive its wonderful pleasures. Likewise, idolatry is an obsession over an idol or image that the person lives their lives to please the idol or image to receive some kind of pleasure. In conclusion the human sex organs are the idols in modern society which means that fornication is idolatry.
In fact there is phallic worship that has been going on for centuries. The genitalia of humans were idolized in many different religions of the ancient world. They even went as far as performing the sexual act ritualistically in honor of its reproductive powers. The ancient world respected the duality of male and female sexuality as a divine love but in a flamboyant way. Instead of keeping it as a sacred union between two lovers, they thought to share it with everyone. In fact the obelisk found around the world is a symbol of the male penis, a sex worship symbol.
People today idolize sex by promoting ecstasy pills, condoms for “safe sex”, “friends of benefits”, skin tight clothes, strip clubs and more. Although most people today don’t see themselves as worshiping sex by doing these things. Generally most of us feel as though we are just freely acting on harmless intimate emotions.
Spiritual Fornication: Worshiping Other Gods
“Thou shalt not have any other gods before me”. The concept of worshiping other gods is vague today. It has turned into myths and legends. Most people do not believe that the traditions we keep all originate from some kind of deity worship. Unfortunately they do, even the concept of sexual liberation and freedom. There are deities of love that we give recognition to more often than we think. The annual valentines day celebration is one of these sexy holidays. And the concept of the love fairy cupid is a type of sex worship theme.
The bible doesn’t stop there. Fornication on this level is what the New testament calls “lukewarm” or serving two masters Revelation 3:16. Having two religions was a popular concept of “whoring after other gods” which is having two or more religions.
Judges2:17
17 And yet they would not hearken unto their judges, but they went a whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves unto them: they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in, obeying the commandments of the Lord; but they did not so.
All religions around the world have some kind of “god” attached to it. Therefore, Christians mingle into other religions as considered “whoring” on a spiritual level. This was a major trespass to The Highest God in the Old Testament. The ancient Isrealites would “go a whoring” by knowing The Highest Gods ways and deliberately follow another religion or deity. As we see above in Judges 2:17 they disobeyed and they went through a series of wars, forced captivities and judgement all for “whoring/ spiritually fornicating” with other nations and their gods.
Physical Fornication: Sex
Most of the world knows and loves the thoughts and act of sexual intimacy with anyone they want. Fornication is in our everyday lives and promoted in movies, books, schools, and TV shows. The fashion industry promotes it as well by marketing inappropriate clothing to both men and women. Humans love sexual freedom almost as much as sex itself. Christ however tells us that we cannot have sexual freedom especially as saints.
1 Corinthians 6:18.
18 “Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.”
As the apostle Paul has written, we must flee fornication. It is one of the most dangerous sins we could ever commit. Sinning against the body is more like defiling The Highest Gods temple. Our bodies become part of Christ’s divine body after baptism and the heavenly tabernacle. If we fornicate, especially after baptism, we are sinning against the Christ body and our own.
The act of fornication is a deeply lustful act. People do it out of impulse sometimes. As people professing Godliness, we must be able to control these impulses and direct them in a healthier direction. Lets face it, the fruits of fornication are negative by nature. There are unwanted pregnancies, STD’s, rape, sex trafficking, and child molestation leaving a trail of broken hearts under the ways of fornication.
Conclusion:
Sex is a wonderful thing only it is treated as a serious and sacred act of love and creation. A majority of popular culture promotes the sensual act of sex to lure people into committing the act sub-consciously. Fornication has a long history in pagan orgy festivals that we participate in seasonally and annually. In general fornication isn’t just a physical act, it is a spiritual betrayal as well. If we are trying to be Christ like we must know and understand that fornication has become a normal and accepted act these days, both physically and spiritually. It is more important now than ever to practice abstinence from not just sex but from venturing into other religions.