“Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
1 Corinthians 6:18–20 (ESV)
God gave mankind sex for procreation, intimacy, and commitment. Procreation is part of God’s special means to create a bride for His Son who is worthy of His Son. The Father determined that in order to create a bride for His Son, children must be born. Mankind must increase in number. Because many are called but few are chosen, there must be many births in order to create the perfect number of saints to constitute the bride for Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us that when God created man “God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it….”[1]
God gives us sex to create intimacy. The more we understand and value intimacy the more we are able to understand and value our relationship with Jesus Christ. Fornication destroys intimacy between a husband and wife. It also destroys our intimacy with God. The less we understand the spiritual nature of intimacy the weaker our ability to understand and value our relationship with Jesus Christ. Fornication eventually produces alienation rather than intimacy. It is doubtful that sex will exist in heaven because our intimacy with Christ will be wonderful and satisfying, fulfilling our deepest desires. The intimacy that sex fosters and expresses between husband and wife may be replaced by an infinite and eternal intimacy with Christ. In God’s moral law, sex outside of marriage was a sin. Assuming that moral law holds true in heaven, there will be no sex in heaven. God created sex for marriage, but there will be no marriage in heaven. When the Pharisees asked Jesus about marriage in heaven, he said: “in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels in heaven.”[2]
Intimacy deepens and sweetens the commitment between husband and wife. The greater that intimacy, the sweeter and more powerful and enduring the commitment. The weaker the intimacy between husband and wife, the weaker and less appealing their commitment. Fornication (which includes adultery) weakens and eventually destroys commitment. Fornication destroys our ability to commit to a spouse and to God.
By God’s design husband and wife become “one flesh”[3] on all levels: spiritual, physical, mental, and emotional. As Paul says, this is a profound mystery and points to Christ’s relationship with His bride, the Church Triumphant.[4] That is why fornication is such a horrid breach of the marriage covenant and a desecration of God’s plan for marriage, a living picture of Christ’s relationship with His bride, the Church.
Our bodies belong to three persons: Christ, ourselves, and our spouse. How can we fornicate with what belongs to Christ and should be used for His glory? The body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. How dare we pollute that temple by fornicating!
[1] Genesis 1:26-28
[2] Matthew 22:30 (ESV)
[3] Genesis 2:24.
[4] Ephesians 5:31-32
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