What Does God Say About Sexual Immorality?
Most people do not look this up out of curiosity. You come to it convicted, or tempted, or hurt by someone else's sin, and you want to know what God actually says instead of what you have assumed He says. Scripture talks about sex more plainly than most churches do. It sets a high standard because it sets a high value: your body is a temple, bought with a price. And it holds the standard and the mercy in the same hands. These verses give you both, the line and the way back.
7 Scriptures for Sexual Immorality?
“Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.”
1 Corinthians 6:18-20
Paul's command is one word: flee. Not negotiate, not linger at a manageable distance. Then he gives the reason, and it is dignity, not disgust. Your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost, purchased at the cross. Scripture takes sexual sin this seriously because you are worth so much, not so little.
Read the full chapter →“For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God:”
1 Thessalonians 4:3-5
People agonize over finding God's will. Here it is in plain text: your sanctification. Possessing your vessel in sanctification and honour means your body has a master, and it is not appetite. Notice the phrase know how. This is a learned skill, which means it can be practiced and it can grow.
Read the full chapter →“Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.”
Matthew 5:27-28
Jesus moves the line from the act to the look, which puts every one of us on the wrong side of it. That is deliberate. The standard goes that deep to show where the disease actually lives: in the heart, the one place only He can treat. Purity is an inside job before it is a behavior. Start where He starts.
Read the full chapter →“Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.”
Hebrews 13:4
One verse, the whole architecture. Marriage honourable, the bed undefiled, and sex inside that covenant celebrated without embarrassment. God invented the fire and built the fireplace for it. The warning at the end is about what fire does everywhere else.
Read the full chapter →“There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”
1 Corinthians 10:13
Read this slowly if you feel trapped. The temptation is common to man, which kills the lie that you are uniquely broken. God is faithful, which means the way of escape is His responsibility to provide and yours to take. Look for the exit in the actual moment. There is one.
Read the full chapter →“Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.”
Psalm 51:10-12
David wrote this after adultery and the cover-up that followed. It is the prayer of a man who fell as far as this sin goes, and it asks for exactly the right things: a clean heart, a right spirit, restored joy. God answered him. Three thousand years of people have walked back on this psalm. Pray it as your own.
Read the full chapter →“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
1 John 1:9
Here is the door back, stated as a promise God keeps. Confess, and He is faithful and just to forgive and to cleanse. Not probation, cleansing. Shame wants you to hide the sin and keep it. Confession hands it over and loses it. Walk through the door tonight.
Read the full chapter →A Prayer for Sexual Immorality?
God, You know what I have done and what I keep almost doing, and none of it surprises You. I am done pretending this is under control. Create in me a clean heart, like David asked, because I cannot scrub this one myself. Show me the way of escape You promised, and give me the nerve to take it while it is open. Thank You that confession ends in cleansing, not probation. Make my body what You call it: a temple, honored and Yours. Amen.
More prayers →Start Clean Tonight
Play 1 Corinthians 6 and let it say the hard part and the hopeful part in the same breath. You were bought with a price. Let that be the last thought of the night instead of the shame.
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