What the Bible Says About Sexual Immorality

Scripture

¹ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
² “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, I am the Lord your God.
³ You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes.
⁴ You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord your God.
⁵ You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord.
⁶ “None of you shall approach any one of his close relatives to uncover nakedness. I am the Lord.
⁷ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, which is the nakedness of your mother; she is your mother, you shall not uncover her nakedness.
⁸ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife; it is your father’s nakedness.
⁹ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your sister, your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether brought up in the family or in another home.
¹⁰ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your son’s daughter or of your daughter’s daughter, for their nakedness is your own nakedness.
¹¹ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife’s daughter, brought up in your father’s family, since she is your sister.
¹² You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s sister; she is your father’s relative.
¹³ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister, for she is your mother’s relative.
¹⁴ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s brother, that is, you shall not approach his wife; she is your aunt.
¹⁵ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law; she is your son’s wife, you shall not uncover her nakedness.
¹⁶ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is your brother’s nakedness.
¹⁷ You shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and of her daughter, and you shall not take her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter to uncover her nakedness; they are relatives; it is depravity.
¹⁸ And you shall not take a woman as a rival wife to her sister, uncovering her nakedness while her sister is still alive.
¹⁹ “You shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness while she is in her menstrual uncleanness.”
²⁰ And you shall not lie sexually with your neighbor’s wife and so make yourself unclean with her.
²¹ You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.
²² You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.
²³ And you shall not lie with any animal and so make yourself unclean with it, neither shall any woman give herself to an animal to lie with it: it is perversion.
²⁴ “Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean,
²⁵ And the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants.
²⁶ But you shall keep my statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you.
²⁷ (for the people of the land, who were before you, did all of these abominations, so that the land became unclean),
²⁸ so that the land will not vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you.
²⁹ For everyone who does any of these abominations, the persons who do them shall be cut off from among their people.
³⁰ So you shall keep my charge by not doing any of the abominable customs that were done before you, and by not defiling yourselves with them: I am the Lord your God.”

Leviticus 18:1-30

Leviticus 20:10-21: ¹⁰ “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
¹¹ If a man lies with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness; both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.
¹² If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death; they have committed perversion; their blood is upon them.
¹³ If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.
¹⁴ If a man takes a woman and her mother also, it is depravity; he and they shall be burned with fire, that there may be no depravity among you.
¹⁵ If a man lies with an animal, he shall surely be put to death, and you shall kill the animal.
¹⁶ If a woman approaches any animal and lies with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.
¹⁷ “If a man takes his sister, a daughter of his father or a daughter of his mother, and sees her nakedness, and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace, and they shall be cut off in the sight of the children of their people. He has uncovered his sister’s nakedness, and he shall bear his iniquity.
¹⁸ If a man lies with a woman during her menstrual period and uncovers her nakedness, he has made naked her fountain, and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood.
¹⁹ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister or of your father’s sister, for that is to make naked one’s relative; they shall bear their iniquity.
²⁰ If a man lies with his uncle’s wife, he has uncovered his uncle’s nakedness; they shall bear their sin; they shall die childless.
²¹ If a man takes his brother’s wife, it is impurity. He has uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall be childless.

Deuteronomy 22:13-30: ¹³ “If any man takes a wife and goes in to her and then hates her,
¹⁴ then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done an outrageous thing in Israel by whoring in her father’s house. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
¹⁵ then the father of the young woman and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of her virginity to the elders of the city in the gate.
¹⁶ “And the father of the young woman shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man to marry, and he hates her;
¹⁷ then both the men who lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has violated her. He may not divorce her all his days.
¹⁸ Then the elders of that city shall take the man and whip him,
¹⁹ then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done an outrageous thing in Israel by whoring in her father’s house. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
²⁰ But if the thing is true, that evidence of virginity was not found in the young woman,
²¹ then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done an outrageous thing in Israel by whoring in her father’s house. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
²² “If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.
²³ “If there is a betrothed virgin, and a man meets her in the city and lies with her,
²⁴ then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
²⁵ “But if in the open country a man meets a young woman who is betrothed, and the man seizes her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die.
²⁶ But to the young woman you shall do nothing; in the young woman there is no offense punishable by death, for this case is like that of a man attacking and murdering his neighbor,
²⁷ for he met her in the open country, and the betrothed young woman cried for help, and there was no one to rescue her.
²⁸ “If a man meets a virgin who is not betrothed, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are found,
²⁹ then the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has violated her. He may not divorce her all his days.
³⁰ “A man shall not take his father’s wife, so that he does not uncover his father’s nakedness.

Proverbs 5:1-23: ¹ My son, be attentive to my wisdom; incline your ear to my understanding,
² that you may keep discretion, and your lips may guard knowledge.
³ For the lips of a forbidden 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 ponder 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,
¹⁰ lest strangers take their fill of your strength,
and your labors go to the house of a foreigner,
¹¹ And at the end of your life you groan, when your flesh and body are consumed,
¹² and you say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!
¹³ I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors.
¹⁴ I am at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation.”
¹⁵ Drink water from your own cistern,
flowing water from your own well.
¹⁶ Should your springs be scattered abroad,
streams of water in the streets?
¹⁷ Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you.
¹⁸ Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth.
¹⁹ Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.
²⁰ Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?
²¹ For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he ponders all his paths.
²² The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin.
²³ He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly he is led astray.

Proverbs 6:20-35: ²⁰ My son, keep your father’s commandment,
and forsake not your mother’s teaching.
²¹ Bind them on your heart always;
tie them around your neck.
²² When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you.
²³ For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,
²⁴ to preserve you from the evil woman,
from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.
²⁵ Do not desire her beauty in your heart,
and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes;
²⁶ For the price of a prostitute is only a loaf of bread, but a married woman hunts down a precious life.
²⁷ Can a man carry fire next to his chest
and his clothes not be burned?
²⁸ Or can one walk on hot coals
and his feet not be scorched?
²⁹ So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife; none who touches her will go unpunished.
³⁰ People do not despise a thief if he steals
to satisfy his appetite when he is hungry,
³¹ but if he is caught, he will pay sevenfold; he will give all the goods of his house.
³² He who commits adultery lacks sense; he who does it destroys himself.
³³ He will get wounds and dishonor, and his disgrace will not be wiped away.
³⁴ For jealousy makes a man furious, and he will not spare when he takes revenge.
³⁵ He will accept no compensation; he will refuse though you multiply gifts.

Proverbs 7:1-27: ¹ My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you;
² Keep my commandments and live; keep my teaching as the apple of your eye.
³ Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.
⁴ Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call insight your intimate friend,
⁵ to keep you from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words.
⁶ For at the window of my house I have looked out through my lattice,
⁷ and I have seen among the simple,
I have perceived among the youths,
a young man lacking sense,
⁸ passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house,
⁹ in the twilight, in the evening, at the time of night and darkness.
¹⁰ And behold, the woman meets him, dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart.
¹¹ She is loud and wayward; her feet do not stay at home;
¹² Now in the street, now in the market, and at every corner she lies in wait.
¹³ She seizes him and kisses him,
and with bold face she says to him:
¹⁴ “I had to offer sacrifices, and today I have paid my vows;”
¹⁵ So I came out to meet you, diligently to seek your face, and I have found you.
¹⁶ I have spread my couch with coverings,
colored linens from Egyptian linen;
¹⁷ I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
¹⁸ Come, let us take our fill of love till morning; let us delight ourselves with love.
¹⁹ “For my husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey;”
²⁰ She seizes him and kisses him,
and with bold face she says to him:
²¹ With much seductive speech she persuades him; with her smooth talk she compels him.
²² All at once he follows her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a stag is caught fast

²³ till an arrow pierces its liver;
as a bird rushes into a snare;
he does not know that it will cost him his life.
²⁴ And now, O sons, listen to me, and be attentive to the words of my mouth.
²⁵ Let not your heart turn aside to her ways; do not stray into her paths,
²⁶ for many a victim has she laid low,
and all her slain are a mighty throng.
²⁷ Her house is the way to Sheol,
going down to the chambers of death.

Matthew 5:27-30: ²⁷ “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’”
²⁸ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
²⁹ If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.
³⁰ And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

Matthew 19:3-9: ³ And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?”
⁴ He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female,
⁵ and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?
⁶ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
⁷ They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?”
⁸ He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.
⁹ And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”

Mark 7:20-23: ²⁰ And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him.
²¹ For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,
²² coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.
²³ All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

Romans 1:24-32: ²⁴ Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,
²⁵ because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
²⁶ For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature;
²⁷ and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
²⁸ And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
²⁹ They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,
³⁰ slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
³¹ foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
³² Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

1 Corinthians 5:1-13: ¹ It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife.
² And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.
³ For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing.
⁴ When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus,
⁵ you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
⁶ Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?
⁷ Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
⁸ Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
⁹ I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—
¹⁰ not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.
¹¹ But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one.
¹² For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?
¹³ God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”

1 Corinthians 6:9-20: ⁹ Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,
¹⁰ nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
¹¹ And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
¹² “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything.
¹³ “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
¹⁴ And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.
¹⁵ Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never!
¹⁶ Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.”
¹⁷ But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.
¹⁸ 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 7:1-40: ¹ Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.”
² But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.
³ The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband.
⁴ For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.
⁵ Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
⁶ Now as a concession, not a command, I say this.
⁷ I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another.
⁸ To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single, as I am.
⁹ But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.
¹⁰ To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband.
¹¹ (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife.
¹² To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her.
¹³ If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him.
¹⁴ For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.
¹⁵ But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace.
¹⁶ For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?
¹⁷ Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches.
¹⁸ Was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision. Was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised? Let him not seek circumcision.
¹⁹ For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God.
²⁰ Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called.
²¹ Were you a bondservant when called? Do not be concerned about it. (But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.)
²² For he who was called in the Lord as a bondservant is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a bondservant of Christ.
²³ You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men.
²⁴ So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God.
²⁵ Now concerning the betrothed, I have no command from the Lord, but I give my judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy.
²⁶ I think that in view of the present distress it is good for a person to remain as he is.
²⁷ Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife.
²⁸ But if you do marry, you have not sinned, and if a betrothed woman marries, she has not sinned. Yet those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that.
²⁹ This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none,
³⁰ and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods,
³¹ and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.
³² I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord.
³³ But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife.
³⁴ and his interests are divided. And the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband.
³⁵ I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord.
³⁶ If anyone thinks that he is not behaving properly toward his betrothed, if his passions are strong, and it has to be, let him do as he wishes: let them marry—it is no sin.
³⁷ But whoever is firmly established in his heart, being under no necessity but having his desire under control, and has determined this in his heart, to keep her as his betrothed, he will do well.
³⁸ So then he who marries his betrothed does well, and he who refrains from marriage will do even better.
³⁹ A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.
⁴⁰ Yet in my judgment she is happier if she remains as she is. And I think that I too have the Spirit of God.

Galatians 5:19-21: ¹⁹ Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,
²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,
²¹ envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Ephesians 5:3-7: ³ But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.
⁴ Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.
⁵ For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
⁶ Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
⁷ Therefore do not become partners with them;

Colossians 3:5-7: ⁵ Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
⁶ On account of these the wrath of God is coming.
⁷ In these you too once walked, when you were living in them.

1 Thessalonians 4:3-8: ³ For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality;
⁴ that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor,
⁵ not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God;
⁶ that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you.
⁷ For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.
⁸ Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

Hebrews 13:4: ⁴ Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

Revelation 2:14-16: But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality.
¹⁵ So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
¹⁶ Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth.

Revelation 2:20-23: ²⁰ But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.
²¹ I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.
²² Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works,
²³ and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works.