“True love is waiting” is the motto under which Christian teenagers and young adults in America and Europe fight against their desire for sex before marriage. The Catholic Christian Church believes that sex before marriage is a sin. They solemnly pledge, “By the grace of God, beginning today, I commit before God, myself, my family, my friends, and my future spouse to remain sexually pure until the day of my marriage!”
The Bible clarifies that sex before marriage is not a sin but can lead to fornication, which is deadly to the life of a Christian person. Fornication is voluntary sexual intercourse between two persons who are not bound by the marriage bond. Therefore only marriage is the legal framework for sexual relations, and their sole purpose must be the gifts of procreation and pleasure. Sex for pleasure before marriage is forbidden because it defiles the marital bed and poisons the mind and body.
Premarital sex is sexual intercourse between a couple at a time before marriage. In many industrialised countries of the Western world, it is now part of everyday life in society and is neither punishable nor frowned upon.
What is sexuality?
The term comes from Latin and means “gender.” It’s not just about physical kissing, cuddling, or sleeping together. Sexuality is about the whole human being, what defines him as a man and woman, and his personality. This image is also found in the Bible. From the first pages, she describes a man as a sexual being. God himself created sex. He wanted men and women to exist, complement, support, and share their lives. It is expressly said that God finds human sexuality perfect.
Sexuality encompasses all expressions of life, sensations, and behaviours related broadly to the sexual counter and sexual (as opposed to vegetative) reproduction.
So there is nothing disreputable or dirty about it; it is neither idolised nor demonised: her beauty is described in the Song of Solomon, and her dangers are warned of in Proverbs 5, for example. These two guard rails run through the entire Bible. There is a lot of freedom, in which every couple can decide for themselves in their responsibility before God how they want to shape their sexuality. The article’s points are intended to assist in this regard. A Bible verse is quoted at the beginning, which thematically outlines the various focal points.
Can unmarried Christians have sex?
4 Biblical Statements about sex
1. Sex makes two people one flesh
God only intended sex for two people, who should no longer separate. By having sex before marriage, one concludes the marriage. Because that’s how two people become one flesh, the Bible says we shouldn’t separate.
And a great crowd followed him, and he healed them there. Then the Pharisees came to him and put him to the test, saying, Is it lawful to divorce a woman for any reason? But he answered and said to them: Have you not read that he who created them [human beings] made them in the beginning male and female and said: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh”? So now they are no longer two, but one flesh. What God has joined together, let no man separate. (Matthew 19:2-6)
2. Sex with multiple people is dishonourable
It is also interesting that God commanded priests to marry a virgin. An undefiled chaste woman who had not yet had sex. He shall take a virgin to wife. He shall not take a widow, or a castaway, or a dishonoured woman, or a whore. But he shall take a virgin from among his people to wife so that he does not profane his offspring among his people. For I, the Lord, sanctify him. (Leviticus 21:13-15)
From this passage alone, one can see that God calls women who have had sex with multiple men “dishonoured.” That doesn’t mean, however, that you can’t become honourable. Because someone who has had sex with different people several times in the past can receive forgiveness for it through the New Covenant, which Jesus made, it is even written that God will never remember the sins of such a man. Of course, this also includes leaving the sin behind and not committing it again.
But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law in their hearts and write it on their minds, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people; and no one will teach his neighbour or his brother, saying, “Know the Lord!” for they shall all know me, from the smallest to the greatest, says the Lord; because I want to forgive them their misdeeds and remember their sins no more! (Jeremiah 31:33-34)
3. Sex with more than one person is fornication
The Bible also clarifies that fornication or sexual immorality, such as sex before marriage, can lead to sin and should be avoided at all costs. Here is one of many examples:
Flee fornication! Every sin that a man [otherwise] commits is outside the body, but the fornicator sins against his own body. (1 Corinthians 6:18)
However, the true definition of fornication does not seem to be known to many people. Because fornication was committed by having sex with more than one person, that is, if you have sex with a person, then leave them, and then sometime later have sex with someone else or engage in other sexual acts such as petting, you are committing fornication and also adultery.
It would also not be advisable to sleep in one bed before marriage because the Bible says that by having sex before marriage, one has already made the marriage covenant.
4. Anyone who has had sex with a person before marriage is obliged to marry them
The Word of God makes it clear that “If a man persuades a virgin who is not betrothed and lies with her, he shall take her as his wife by paying the price.” (Exodus 22:16). The Bible says several times that if you have sex with a person before marriage, you are married to each other and thus are bound to them for life. Therefore a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, that they may become one flesh. (Genesis 2:24)
Suppose somebody finds a virgin who is not yet betrothed, takes her and lies with her. And she is caught, the man who lay with the daughter shall give her father fifty shekels. And he shall have her as a wife because he weakened her; he cannot reject her for the rest of his life. (Deuteronomy 22:28-29)
You might also want to know.
1. What does sexually licentious mean?
The scientists paint a picture of a “generation without restraint”: According to the study, many young people are sexually licentious, for they deliberately consume alcohol and harder drugs to facilitate sexual contact – and later to consciously influence their sensations during the sexual act.
2. What does fornication mean in the Bible?
In the Bible, the term “fornication” was used for the Greek term porneia: which is sexual behaviour contrary to the moral sense of society; illegitimate sexual intercourse.
3. Does the Bible forbid fornication?
Christianity, based on the Bible and its scriptural teachings, forbids fornication and encourages abstinence from sex before marriage.
Conclusion
The Bible does not strictly forbid sex before marriage, but it does not recommend it because it can lead to the capital sin of fornication. Sex before marriage automatically brings multiple consequences.
And even if it is difficult to find evidence in the Bible for a strict no to premarital sex today, the campaign deserves respect because adolescent psychiatrists have established that the unlimited sexual freedom propagated in the consumer society is more of a burden than a pleasure for many young people and puts them under tremendous pressure.
Precisely given this freedom, Christians remain committed to dealing responsibly and sincerely with God’s gift of lust. And above all, no one may make others the objects of their drives. Rob them of their dignity, humiliate them and force them to engage in sexual activity, or expose them to physical or psychological danger. Sex is a voluntary, respectful encounter between two people. For Christians, this is a necessary consequence of the idea that we are made in the image of God ( Genesis 1:27 ).
