Immorality: Adultery, Fornication and Homosexuality, Part 1

September, 2004

by: Jack Hughes

• Common Sins

Recently I noticed in a newspaper a review of a movie that was designed to “explore adultery within marriage.” The article quoted some of the actors and people involved in making the movie, and they all seemed to think that most marriages experience some adultery, and in some cases it is good for the marriage! This is just one example of the world's attempt to inoculate society into thinking that sexual immorality is nothing but common, and a good part of human expression in relationships. Of course the Bible tells us the exact opposite. Immorality is one of the many lies being advertised by the world, whose ruler is Satan himself.

One needs only to watch a small amount of prime–time television, read a newspaper, or listen to the radio for a while to discover that immorality is widely accepted in our world. In fact it is so common that those who do not engage in immorality are condemned as evil. The world has become like Israel before they were judged by God. God described them in Isa. 5:20-23 with these words, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight! Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine and valiant men in mixing strong drink, who justify the wicked for a bribe, and take away the rights of the ones who are in the right!” That is a commentary on our world, on the society we live in. Immorality is just one of the sins the world is calling good and those that are doing good are being condemned as evil!

In the last Calvary Review we addressed the “Lust of the Flesh” in our series on common sins and their cure. Having examined the lust of the flesh we now have a biblical foundation on which to build an understanding of how the lust of the flesh expresses itself. The lust of the flesh might be understood as the engine and immorality, adultery, fornication, and homosexuality the boxcars getting pulled along behind it. So in this Calvary Review we will begin a series within our series looking at major sins and their cures. We will “explore” immorality, adultery, fornication, and homosexuality from a biblical perspective, looking at the consequences of immorality, and its cure.

Immorality

In the Old Testament the English Word “immorality” only appears in the New American Standard Bible in Lev. 20:14 which says, “If there is a man who marries a woman and her mother, it is immorality; both he and they shall be burned with fire, so that there will be no immorality in your midst.” The word translated “immorality” is the Hebrew word zimmah which appears 19 times in the Old Testament and is usually translated “lewdness.” Other words or phrases used to describe immorality is rape (one occurrence), ravish (five occurrences), “uncover the nakedness of” (sixty–eight occurrences) or to “lie with” (twenty occurrences). These words are used to describe all sorts of deviant sexual behavior outside of marriage such as rape, lewdness, unchastity, incest, licentiousness, bestiality, adultery, homosexuality, harlotry and immorality.

The Old Testament is without ambiguity in condemning immorality. Large portions of the law of Moses address immoral acts e.g., Ex. 20, 22; Lev. 15; Deut. 5 are chapters that contain sections condemning various acts of immorality and Lev. 18; 20 and Deut. 22; 27 are all almost exclusively devoted to addressing sexual sins. The seduction of a virgin (Ex.22:16), fornication (Deut. 22:23), rape (Deut. 22:25), bestiality (Ex. 22:19; Lev. 18:23; 20:13, 16; Deut. 27:21), homosexuality (Lev. 18:22; 20:13), incest (Lev. 18:6; 20:11-12); adultery (Ex. 20:14; Lev. 20:10; Deut. 5:18) and every combination of sexual acts between blood relatives and those closely related are condemned as abominations to the Lord.

In the New Testament, the Greek word translated “immorality” in the most modern English version of the Bible is the Greek word pornea. Pornea includes impure sexual lust, prostitution, sensuality, incest, licentiousness, homosexuality, bestiality, adultery, fornication, along with all other sinful sexual thoughts and acts outside of marriage. It has many derivatives with different nuances of meaning and appears in the verb and noun forms in the New Testament. It is the word we get pornography from, which is an English transliteration of the Greek words pornos (immorality) and graphe (to write) compounded together to form “pornography” meaning “immoral writing” or “writing about immoral things.” In addition to pornea, several other words are used to describe immorality such as sexual promiscuity (Rom. 13:13); sensuality (Mk. 7:22); impurity (I Thess. 4:7). In addition to these general terms, other words are used to describe specific kinds of immorality.

While many texts might be cited that condemn immorality in all of its forms, a few will be cited to prove the point that according to the Word of God, immorality has no place in the life of Christians. In Rom. 13:13 the Apostle Paul says, “Let us behave properly as in the day, … not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality.” In II Cor. 12:21 Paul encourages the Corinthians to abstain from immorality so he will not have to mourn over “those who have sinned in the past and not repented of the impurity, immorality and sensuality which they have practiced.” In Gal. 5:19-21 Paul contrasts the life lived according to the Holy Spirit and the life lived according to the flesh or sinful desires. He makes it clear that these two life styles are antithetical and that Christians are to walk by the Spirit. When mentioning the deeds of the flesh, the first three sins mentioned in a list of fifteen sins are immorality, impurity, and sensuality. When speaking to the Ephesians in Eph. 5:3 Paul also makes God's will clear, “But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.” To the Colossians, Paul makes a similar statement in Col. 3:5-6, “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.” Notice that Paul equates immorality with “idolatry.” The reason he does this is whenever we put our desire to have our lusts fulfilled before God's will, we commit idolatry. In I Thess. 4:3-8 when Paul writes to the Thessalonians he says, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality.” He goes on to say in vss. 7–8, “For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.” Notice that Paul not only condemns immorality, but equates it with “rejecting God.”

Church's Seduction

Keeping these things in mind, what do you think is the reason for rampant immorality in the church? Why do we hear of pastors, priests, elders, and deacons engaging in all sorts deviant sexual behavior? Why is it less and less common for Christian couples to be virgins before they marry? Why are major denominations openly supporting immorality as good, as right, and as biblically acceptable? These are important and critical questions that need to be answered, for God's Word is clear there are eternal consequences for those who practice sexual immorality. If we do not find answers to these questions, there is little hope for the Church being able to wade upstream against the current of the world's immorality.

While many factors might be listed as part of the problem, here are some of the bigger ones. First of all, most churches are preaching an inadequate Gospel. The Scriptures make it clear that the Gospel, the Good News concerning the person and work of Jesus Christ, and how a person can be saved from the wrath of God through faith in the Gospel message is being distorted or truncated in many churches. It is tragic but true, that most churches have slowly been duped into rejecting biblical presentations of the Gospel. Instead, they try to preach a Gospel that doesn't offend, that doesn't confront, that doesn't ask for anything, “come as you are” approaches. Yet all one needs to do is read through the Book of Acts and discover what real Gospel preaching is.

The Book of Acts is a good place to look, because Acts is the historical account of how God, through the Holy Spirit, used the Apostles to build the Church through the preaching of the Gospel. Read and search as hard as you can and you will find no “altar calls,” no one “asking Jesus in their heart,” “no one praying the sinner's prayer” or “making a decision for Christ” or “raising their hands to become a Christian,” or “signing a card to become a Christian.” The Church, in an effort to “streamline,” “calculate,” and “brag about” conversions has substituted the real Gospel for a very sloppy substitute that in many cases is so obscure that people don't know enough to reject or accept the truth.

No, what you see in Acts are people being confronted about their sin, being warned about God's coming judgment, being told about Jesus death, burial and resurrection, and being commanded to repent and believe in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Thousands are saved and the Church has an explosion of numerical growth. Yet you would think, by the Gospel messages at many churches that the Apostles had it all wrong, that they didn't know what they were doing, and the Book of Acts presents a false Gospel. But of course, that is ludicrous. The Church is to be built on the foundation of the Apostles. They are the example, and their epistles give us God's teaching for the Church.

Now you may be reading this and asking yourself, “Now where is he going with this, I thought we were talking about immorality and now we are talking about evangelism?” Hang on, we will get back to how this all fits into the topic of immorality in a minute, but let's continue this thought. Not only do we have churches preaching an inadequate Gospel we also have churches preaching a false Gospel. There are churches that are not preaching about sin, the judgment of God, repentance, who are presenting a Jesus who isn't the sovereign Lord of the universe who demands to be followed and obeyed. And while many of the things that are preached are true, by omitting some of the truth, they preach a false Gospel.

In addition to that, some churches are not preaching the Gospel at all, true or false. Many churches have become political activism associations, philanthropy clubs, or social work organizations. They work hard and do much to get the right candidates into office, to do good deeds for the community, to help feed the poor and give shelter to the homeless. But what they fail to do is preach the Gospel! They merely make people comfortable on their way to Hell, never telling them that there is a Savior who died on the cross for their sins and that judgment is coming but if they repent of their sins and place their faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ they will be saved! Yet, too often there is silence. And when the Gospel isn't preached, no one gets saved.

How does this relate to immorality? It relates to immorality in this way. Unsaved people are slaves of sin (Rom. 6:17-20), are held captive by Satan to do his will (II Tim. 2:25-26), do not have the Holy Spirit within them (Rom. 8:9), cannot please God (Rom. 8:7-8), cannot understand the Word of God (I Cor. 2;14) and always walk in disobedience to God (Eph. 2:1-3). Churches that are not preaching the Gospel are filled with immoral people because they are filled with unbelievers. So it may appear that the Church is “just like the world” but in reality, what we are seeing is a group of deceived unbelievers pretending to be the Church. This is why it is so important for the Church to preach the Gospel, fully, accurately, and frequently. The Gospel is God's power to save (Rom. 1:16; I Cor. 1:18). Once a person is saved, then God begins to perfect them until the day of Christ Jesus (Phil. 1:6; 2:13; I Thess. 5:23-24). For the next Calvary Review we will look at more reasons for rampant immorality in the Church.