Question: I do wish that you could clarify the meaning of “fornication” as it pertains to divorce in Matthew 5:32. Also, other scriptural references to “fornication,” such as I Corinthians 5:9-11 and 6:13, and Matthew 19:9. I feel that some sound teaching in this area is needful at this present time.
Answer: I wish I could clarify the meaning, too, but all I can do is to try, and that I will do as much as God will help me. Matthew 5:32 reads, “But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.”
Fornication and adultery refer to the same act only under different conditions. Fornication is defined as “Sexual immorality between two people not married to each other.” It applies to single people principally. Adultery is sexual immorality between two people of whom one or both are married but not to each other. Adam Clarke says at this place, “As fornication signifies no more than the unlawful connection of unmarried persons, it cannot be used here with propriety, when speaking of those who are married.” He says, therefore that instead of “fornication” in this place, it would be translated, “on account of whoredom.” Other translations of the New Testament agree with this. Rotheram translates it, “unfaithfulness.” Moffatt renders it, “For any reason except unchastity.” The New Testament in Basic English says, “For any other cause but the loss of her virtue.” The Olaf N. Norlie Translation says, “For any reason other than adultery.” All of these translations sum up to the same thing sexual immorality. Matthew 19:9, where the same statement is made again, follows this same list of translations.
In I Corinthians 5:9 Paul says, “I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators.” Beck translates this, “Not to mix with those who live in sexual sin,” and another translation says,” stop associating with sexually immoral people.” Paul says further in verse 11,”…if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator,…with such an one no not to eat.” I Corinthians 6:9-10 makes it very clear that people in this classification fornicators and adulterers; sexually immoral people shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Ephesians 5:3 spells it out that fornication should not even be mentioned among us as becometh saints. Hebrews 13:4 pronounces the judgments of God against all sexually immoral people. I Corinthians 6:18 says, “Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.” I Corinthians 6:19 says, “…your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost…”, and I Corinthians 3:17 says, “If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” God is very severe against all types of sexual impurity.
I Corinthians 6:13 says, “…Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord;…” True, God put within the human body the urge and desire for sexual fulfillment, but, according to this text, that is not to be used promiscuously. It is provided for the satisfaction, pleasure, and fulfillment of married partners and when properly exercised between married partners and confined there, it is a beautiful and beneficial thing in nurturing and maintaining the love, harmony and tenderness between the two people. There is nothing unclean, nor taboo, nor dishonorable about sexual contact between married partners, and we should never think of it as such. God’s Word declares it to be honorable and undefiled (Hebrews 13:4). I Corinthians 7:2 says, “Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.” God gave humankind this urge and appetite and then provided the proper place for its use in marriage.
In this day in which we now live, there is such a broad scale of permissiveness in this area that just anything and everything goes, and every type of moral perversion is so general and widespread that people pay less attention to it and are less shocked by it than in former times. As a result, this moral impurity gains more ascendancy, and as a result of this the moral standards of our society are disintegrating and the moral fabric of our society is “coming apart at the seams.” Let us be certain that God’s Word still stands and the Scriptures cannot be broken, and even now God’s judgments are being poured out upon our nation to a considerable degree because of its moral degeneracy, and more judgment is to come. In the last great day of final judgment His wrath will be poured out without mixture upon a sin-ruined world. The promises in God’s Word which have not been fulfilled yet are just as sure to come to pass as if they had already happened, and we can count on them with certainty. This is true whether they be of judgment and wrath, or blessings. So, I earnestly admonish every reader of this article to “flee fornication” (Flee from it just like you would from a venomous serpent) as well as all other types of moral impurity.
Homosexuals are staging demonstrations in divers places and clamoring for recognition and equal rights, and I will have to say they are getting too much recognition. They say that is just their preference and way of life, to which they have as much right as other people do to their preference and way of life. The sad fact is that many people who are not of that persuasion themselves are coming to look at it that way, too. What they fail to recognize is that if it were not for the mercy and long-suffering and forbearance of God in Christ, they would all be dead as soon as they were discovered. That was a capital crime punishable by death in God’s law (Leviticus 20:13). Also the penalty for adultery and other forms of moral impurity was death (Leviticus 20:10-16).
God has not changed His attitude toward these things in any measure. Malachi 3:6 says, “For I am the Lord, I change not;…” James says that there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning in Him. (James 1:17.) Numbers 23:19 says, “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” This all sums up to the fact that God’s attitude is just the same now as then. But He has mercy, long-suffering, and forbearance in Christ today, so that the penalty is being delayed a stay of execution. When this mercy period expires and Christ comes to judge the world, God’s sentence of death (yea, even eternal death) shall be executed upon all who are partakers of these moral impurities.
