What is adultery and fornication??
Definitions of modern fornication dictionaries:
- Fornication action; sex or sexual intercourse; coitus.
- Sexual relationship between people who are not married or have a stable relationship.
- [Religion] Sexual relationship with a sinful content; sin of lust; carnal sins.
Definitions of modern adultery dictionaries:
- Conjugal infidelity; betrayal by one of the spouses: divorce for adultery.
- [By Extension] Betrayal that takes place when someone has sex with someone they are not married to.
- [Figured] Merging elements that differ , contradict themselves.
- [Figured] Act of falsifying, altering something; falsification; adulteration.
But the Bible gives us greater insight into how God views these two sexual sins. In the Bible, both are mentioned literally, but both are also used figuratively to refer to idolatry.
In the New Testament, fornication comes from the Greek word porneia, the meaning of which includes adultery and incest.
Adultery, on the other hand, refers to the sexual sin of people married to someone other than their spouse, and the word is used in the Old Testament, literally and figuratively. The Hebrew word translated "adultery" literally means "breaking the marriage".
Adultery and fornication and their consequences
Adultery and fornication are a second degree sin because that sin is directly related to the believer's body, the temple of the Holy Spirit. The first degree of sin is the sin against the Holy Spirit in Acts 5: 1-10, which was directly punished by the believer's death.
With adultery and fornication the marriage is broken. In fact you break the marriage and marry the other partner with whom you have committed adultery or fornication. Look at Genesis 24:67
Then Isaac brought her into the tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her.
Without any marriage ceremony, judge or priest, Isaac had intimate relations with Rebeca, and THAT IS MARRIAGE. The sexual act is marriage. So with adultery and fornication, that means a NEW marriage.
Deuteronomy 24:1-4
"When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a bill of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house, and if she goes and becomes another man's wife, and the latter husband dislikes her and writes her a bill of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies, who took her to be his wife, then her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the LORD, and you shall not bring guilt upon the land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance.
Jeremiah 3:1 "If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man's wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted? You have played the harlot with many lovers; and would you return to me? says the LORD.
What does the Bible say about adultery and fornication?
Exodus 20:14
No 10 commandments: You shall not commit adultery.
Leviticus 18:20
And you shall not lie carnally with your neighbor's wife, and defile yourself with her.
Leviticus 20:10
If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death.
Proverbs 5:3-9, 19-20
3 For the lips of a loose woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil; 4 but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. 5 Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol; 6 she does not take heed to the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it. 7 And now, O sons, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth. 8 Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house; 9 lest you give your honor to others and your years to the merciless;
19 a lovely hind, a graceful doe. Let her affection fill you at all times with delight, be infatuated always with her love. 20 Why should you be infatuated, my son, with a loose woman and embrace the bosom of an adventuress?
Proverbs 6:32
He who commits adultery has no sense; he who does it destroys himself.
Matthew 5:27-28, 32
"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Matthew 15:19
For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander.
Mark 10:11-12
And he said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her; 12 and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery."
Luke 16:18
"Every one who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.
John 8:2-11
Early in the morning he came again to the temple; all the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such. What do you say about her?" This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her." And once more he bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the eldest, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus looked up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again."
Galatians 5:16-17, 19-21
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you would. Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, 21 envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Hebrews 13:4
Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled; for God will judge the immoral and adulterous.
Revelation 2:21-22
I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her immorality. 22 Behold, I will throw her on a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her doings;