What is the Greatest Sexually Immoral Sin—Adultery or Homosexuality?

Richard Hollerman

If you haven’t asked this question, surely it has come to your mind: What is Sexual Immorality and how does God view it? How does homosexuality compare with adultery? Is one worse in God’s sight than the other? We know that both adultery and homosexuality are classified as sexual sins. But how do we view these sexually immoral sins?

How can we compare one with the other?

Sometimes people do criticize homosexuality. Whatever we call it—sodomy, lesbianism, queerness, etc.—we refer to people of the same sex who relate to each other in a sexual way. Of course, we realize that God created the man and the woman to be the husband and the wife, for life (Genesis 2:18, 24). No other relationship is of God.

Therefore, we read that no one who is a practicing, unrepentant homosexuality can enter God’s wondrous kingdom (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). In fact, God finds this sexual sin to be an abomination that must be renounced (Romans 1:27-28). Further, it is a perversion that is to be repented of thoroughly.

On the other hand, what about adultery?  This sin involves one who commits a sexual act with someone who is not a legitimate husband or wife. Adultery, also, will keep one from inheriting the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). It must be renounced, repented of, and one must live a pure and holy life in order to please God.

Anyone who reads God’s written Word (the Bible) realizes that much adultery is committed in our day in a different form than “mere” adultery as mentioned above. When one divorces his wife or husband, apart from fornication, and then marries another person, one commits adultery. In America as well as most other countries of the world, this form of adultery is exceedingly common. Yet God looks on it as true adultery that would keep one from entering His kingdom (1 Corinthians 6:9-11; cf. Galatians 5:19-21; Ephesians 5:3-7).

How Common is Homosexuality and Adultery?

We have briefly discussed homosexuality and adultery above. But how common are these sexual sins? One source puts it this way:

Current studies of American couples indicate that 20 to 40% of heterosexual married men and 20 to 25% of heterosexual married women will also have an extramarital affair during their lifetime. (https://ideas.ted.com/10-facts-about-infidelity-helen-fisher/)

We don’t know how accurate this is, but if there is any truth to it, we find that 20 to 40 percent of men and 20 to 25 percent of women commit adultery during their married life. Perhaps Europe would produce the same results. Other countries of the world would be different. But the statistics for America are shocking. Another report puts it this way: “The results have been consistent. Every year, 10 percent of spouses admit cheating–12 percent of men, 7 percent of women.” (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/all-about-sex/200910/marital-infidelity-how-common-is-it)

As for the adultery that comes from leaving the person to whom one is  married, we find other statistics. Divorce was very, very rare in nineteenth century America (this would be in the 1800s). As one approaches the end of the century and the beginning of the 1900s, we find divorce greatly rising. Consider this:

By the mid- to late 19th century divorce rates in the United States increased at a relatively rapid rate, and during that period on an annual basis Americans obtained more divorces than were granted in all of Europe.^[1] One possible causes for the increased divorce rate is that lowered prices and easier ability to obtain a divorce made divorce affordable to people of limited means.

Previously, divorces were mainly granted to the middle and upper-classes due to their cost. Other possible explanations include the popular acceptance of divorce as an alternative to marital unhappiness, “the decay of the belief in immortality and future punishment”, “the discontent with the existing constitution of society”, “the improvement of transportation and the habits created by new mobility”, “and the greater independence of women resulting in their enlarged legal rights and greater opportunities of self support”. The divorce rate continued to increase in the early 20th Century. In 1890, 3 couples per 1,000 were divorced and by 1920, 8 couples per 1,000 were divorced. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divorce_in_the_United_States)

We think that it is safe to say that adultery in the 1800s of America generally came from being unfaithful to one’s spouse rather than through the act of divorce. Divorce itself was rare, as we have stated, which is noted in this quotation:

Divorce laws have changed a great deal over the last few centuries. Many of the grounds for divorce available in the United States today are rooted in the policies instated by early British rule. Following the American Colonies’ independence, each settlement generally determined its own acceptable grounds for divorce. During colonial times, grounds for divorce were more limited in scope, both in terms of which grievances could qualify as grounds and in terms of who was able to use them. In the 18th century, such concerns as infidelity, alcohol abuse, mistreatment, abandonment, and impotence were among the few reasons that could qualify as grounds for divorce. For much of America’s history, wealthy men were the people most able to seek and to receive a desired split. By the 1960s, however, women and citizens of fewer means found the conditions for seeking divorce more accessible. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grounds_for_divorce_(United_States)

There was a constantly increasing divorce rate in the 1800s and into the 1900s. Notice this comment:

According to the CDC’s report, 100 Years of Divorce and Marriage Statistics, (Table 1) divorce statistics were not recorded prior to 1867. In addition, divorce statistics here are reflective of how many divorces there were in the general population, not how many marriages ended in divorce.

• 1867 – 1879 – .03%
• 1880 – 1886 – .04%
• 1887 – 1890 – .05%
• 1891 – 1897 – .06%
• 1898 – 1900 – .07%

While there certainly was a stigma attached getting a divorce in the 1800s, divorce still happened on occasion. One factor that influenced divorce statistics at this time was the fact that women, outside of marriage, had very few economic opportunities.

Divorce Rates from 1900-1930

While divorce rates still were not that high compared to later years, divorce began to slowly increase. It’s important to note that many places didn’t even keep track of divorce statistics until the turn of the century which may have caused at least some of the increase in the overall divorce rates. Comparatively, divorce rates during the early 1900s were still low because you could not obtain a divorce without proving abuse, adultery, or abandonment.

• 1901 – 1906 – .08%
• 1907 – 1910 – .09%
• 1914 – 1915 – .10%
• 1916 – 1925 – Between .10% to .15%
• 1925 – 1930 – .16%

(https://divorce.lovetoknow.com/Historical_Divorce_Rate_Statistics)

As might be surmised, most of these divorces and most divorces today are not based on any Biblical teaching, any unrepentant adultery. We conclude that nearly all divorces today lead to a clear-cut case of adultery. Further, the act of adultery is committed very often even when there is no divorce through adultery.

Further, we must also ask how often people commit the other sexual sin we have discussed above: Homosexuality. Notice this Atlantic article:

Contemporary research in a less homophobic environment has counterintuitively resulted in lower estimates rather than higher ones. The Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, a gay and lesbian think tank, released a study in April 2011 estimating based on its research that just 1.7 percent of Americans between 18 and 44 identify as gay or lesbian, while another 1.8 percent — predominantly women — identify as bisexual. Far from underestimating the ranks of gay people because of homophobia, these figures included a substantial number of people who remained deeply closeted, such as a quarter of the bisexuals. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey of women between 22 and 44 that questioned more than 13,500 respondents between 2006 and 2008 found very similar numbers: Only 1 percent of the women identified themselves as gay, while 4 percent identified as bisexual.

Higher numbers can be obtained when asking about lifetime sexual experiences, rather than identity. The Williams Institute found that, overall, an estimated 8.2 percent of the population had engaged in some form same-sex sexual activity. Put another way, 4.7 percent of the population had wandered across the line without coming to think of themselves as either gay or bisexual. Other studies suggest those individuals are, like the bisexuals, mainly women: The same CDC study that found only 1 percent of women identify as lesbian, for example, found that 13 percent of women reported a history of some form of sexual contact with other women. (https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/05/americans-have-no-idea-how-few-gay-people-there-are/257753/)

Whether we think of 1 percent of women, 5 percent of women, or as high as 8 percent of women (who have ever had a same-sex encounter), we notice that this is quite a bit lower than then 10 percent often considered in the media in America.

Thus, in regard to numbers, we must say that there is some ambiguity in regard to how many people have committed adultery and how many people have committed homosexuality.

The final point that we wish to note has to do with the number of people who remarry after divorce. Notice this:

In 1960, just 13 percent of all married people had been hitched sometime before; by 2013, that figure was up to 23 percent.

Also, for 2013, a full 40 percent of weddings had at least one partner who’d been married before. A full 20 percent — or one fifth — were between two people who had both been newlyweds at least once before. Evidently, guys are more into trying it again than gals: 30 percent of previously married men told Pew that they didn’t want to marry again, compared with 54 percent of previously married women.

Notice further:

This all speaks to how marriage, as a social phenomenon, is changing. Before the 20th century, the grave was the concluder of most marriages. As Science of Us has reported before, colonial America had marriages that lasted about 12 years on average, thanks to disease and war and natural disaster. In 1900, a full two-thirds of marriages in the U.S. ended with a partner dying, which fell to under one-third by 1976. Conversely, in 1867, under 10 percent of marriages turned into divorce. That was up to 50 percent by 1985, a number that’s stayed stable(ish). It now stands at 52.7 percent, according to University of Maryland sociologist Philip Cohen’s crunching of 2010–2012 American Community Survey data. But the precarity of matrimony isn’t exactly new. (https://www.thecut.com/2017/02/how-many-people-in-america-get-remarried.html)

In consideration of all of these facts and figures, we must conclude that there are millions of people (men and women) in America who are homosexuals or have committed homosexual acts. Further, there are many millions of men and women in America who have committed adultery. And we also note that there are millions of men and women who have remarried after an illegitimate divorce, thus these people are living in a condition or state of adultery. The figures for all of this could reach into tens of millions!

So Which is the Greater Sin?

We began our comments with this consideration. Just how does God look on these sexual sins? Does He accept them? Does He frown upon them? Is He grieved because of them?

According to the Biblical passage we have referenced in this article, both the sins of homosexuality and the adultery will keep the participant from God’s Kingdom (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). But there is a difference here. Homosexuality may be considered a perversion of God’s intended order of one man to one woman for life (Genesis 2:18, 24). But in a sense, even “legitimate” adultery is also a perversion—if we mean doing what God forbids. But apart from this, both of these sins are equally sin. And both will keep one out of the Kingdom of God.

But is there no way to escape from this fate? Is it inevitable? Not at all! Just like many other sins (robbery, lying, anger, etc.), these sexual sins may also be forgiven! Referring to the previous lives of the Corinthians, Paul wrote that “some were some of you” (referring to those who had been homosexuals or adulterers).

These brothers and sisters in Corinth had been cleansed or forgiven of these sins. They had repented!  They were now living apart from participation in these sexual sins. It is true that repentance for these sexual sins may be difficult but it can be done. Anytime that relationships are involved in a sin, it may be difficult—exceedingly difficult—to leave those sins and become cleansed and forgiven. But it can be done!

Our website (www.Truediscipleship.com) offers many other articles on both the sin of homosexuality and the sin of adultery. Please use the Search feature to find these articles and research what God, in Scripture, says about sin in general, particularly the sins we have examined here.

Let’s remember that God is a forgiving God! And Jesus Christ died for all of our sins. He rose again and offers His complete forgiveness for those who are willing to repent and forsake such sins. As Scripture says: “He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who  confesses and forsakes them will find compassion” (Proverbs 28:13). Our gracious God is willing and eager to forgive the sinner if he or she will only repent and forsake them! Please don’t make the common mistake of thinking that you can be forgiven and then continue practicing either adultery or homosexuality. No! Not at all!

If you have never come to Christ for His forgiveness, you not only need to forsake adultery and homosexuality, but every other sin. Be willing to humble yourself and seek God’s forgiveness through Christ! Do not allow yourself to be overcome by these sins or any other ones. Come to Jesus right away!