Common Fornication—without Marriage

Richard Hollerman

It has been rightly pointed out that we are living in unprecedented times. Today’s situation is far different than it was only a few decades ago. This doesn’t make it right or wrong, only different. But as it turns out, it is very, very wrong. However, it would seem that today’s generation is virtually unaware of how wrong it is.

Just today, on the internet, a pregnant girl who has Coronavirus seemly confessed without a blush that she and her boyfriend are having a child. I don’t know whether she has had another baby with this or another man earlier. But this only illustrates that fornication has become so commonplace, so accepted, so seemingly normal that most people are utterly comfortable with the arrangement and think nothing of it!

Fornication may be defined as “voluntary sexual intercourse between two unmarried persons or two persons not married to each other” (Random House Webster’s College Dictionary). This is easy enough to understand and there should be no ambiguity about it and no mistake about its meaning. Simply stated, fornication is sexual relations between two persons who are not married to each other.

Can you see the application to the little interview I saw today and many other references that we all see and hear many times—so frequently that we seem to have lost our sensitivity to the meaning of this sexual immorality that will condemn millions?

This woman was receiving a great amount of medical treatments, probably without insurance, and she dared to say that she is not even married to the father of the expectant baby! Perhaps she was receiving the benefits of the medical establishment that is found all around us. In other words, her medical treatments to deal with Coronavirus were paid for by hard-working taxpayers, perhaps to the tune of $10,000 or $50,000. Is this what you wish to support?

Is there any way out when it seems that the whole culture agrees with the idea that it is fine for an unmarried man and an unmarried woman to have sex and bear a child? Whether or not she was receiving private or public funding, we don’t know, but we do know that this sexual sin has become so commonplace and acceptable in this liberal and permissive society that her relationship with her boyfriend hardly causes any negative reaction.

Even at the time that the New Testament was written, having a child without marriage was not considered good and acceptable. And this was a society filled with all sorts of sexual immorality. Let’s remember that fornicators will not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). Fornication was rightly considered a “deed of the flesh” that kept one from inheriting the kingdom of God (Galatians 5:19-21). Immorality is not “proper among saints” (Ephesians 5:2) and will keep one from inheriting God’s kingdom (v. 5) and it bring God’s wrath (v. 6).

One of the most significant points that we must not overlook is the “picture” that God draws of the marriage relationship. Just as a pure and godly husband has a relationship with his pure and godly wife, with love as the binding force and love as the main feature, two people who are contemplating marriage are to aim for this holy ideal. However, in a carnal or fleshly relationship between two people, this Biblical relationship is missing. Instead of this holy relationship, worldly relationships (of which most presently partake) may be characterized with mere common agreement, common likes and dislikes, the sexual union, agreement with a worldly family, and the like. How lacking and how perverted is such a modern but defective bond. (See Ephesians 5:22-33; 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8; 1 Corinthians 6:12-20.)

Can we see from this that God hates sexual immorality, including fornication—sex outside of legitimate marriage? There are other kinds of sexual immorality, of course (e.g., sodomy, adultery, pedophilia, etc.) Consider a few of the considerations regarding this sin:

1. God abhors sexual immorality, including fornication (sex outside of marriage).
2. This fornication will prevent one from entering God’s kingdom.
3. This arrangement is a total disregard for the good of society. (What if others were to commit this sin publicly, without condemnation?)
4. Is it right to bring a little son or daughter into the world who is confused and thinks that he has no rightful father or mother?
5. Is it right to do something that takes tens of thousands of dollars from others in the form of hospitalization?
6. What are the implications of two unmarried (but “sexually active”) people committing sexual sin so that others will know?
7. Is it right to “force” moral people to help subsidize sexual immorality in any way?
8. Why would a woman not want to be married to the man who impregnated her? Why would a man refuse to be married to the woman he has sex with and who is the mother of his children?
9. Would this sexual arrangement make it more difficult to repent in the future and begin to live morally?
10. As is often the case, this arrangement may manifest even more sexual immorality. For instance, one of the two parties may have been legitimately married in the past and now he or she is committing adultery with another person and bearing that person’s child!

Obviously, there would be many other reasons why a couple should thoughtfully consider their immoral relationship. But these are ones that we should consider quite carefully.

Besides all of this, we know that unless one repents, he or she will not only live in immorality here and sin against the child, but this couple will one day be eternally rejected by a holy and wrathful God. Let us remember this and be willing to face it directly. Will you?

The next time that your friend, or neighbor, or relative says that he or she is living with a boyfriend or girlfriend, you will be able to know right from wrong. This is not something to be applauded, but something to be lamented.