Teens may wonder what it says about sex before marriage in the Bible. Take a look at Scripture, with insights from pastor and author Clint Archer.
When I was in college and a brand-new believer, a question caught me off guard. Someone asked where in the Bible it says Christians should wait until marriage to have sex.
It stumped me because a.) I didn’t know my Bible at all. And b.) even as an unbeliever, I took for granted that Christians did not have premarital sex. I never thought anyone would challenge that assumption. I was wrong.
Recently someone asked me again what it says about sex before marriage in the Bible. So I compiled an answer for others to use. Here’s my condensed offering…
What It Says About Sex Before Marriage in the Bible
In his letter to the Thessalonian Christians, Paul reveals God’s will on sex before marriage to “you in the Lord” (i.e. Christians). It’s important to realize that God doesn’t limit this to a particular culture or period. God, who inspired the writing of Scripture, gave Paul these teachings on “how you ought to walk and to please God” (1 Thessalonians 4:1).
If you don’t live this way, you’re living like the people “who do not know God” (v. 5), i.e. unbelievers. So if a person lives this way, he shouldn’t call himself a Christian.
Here’s the passage:
Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; 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. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. 1 Thessalonians 4:1-7
More Scriptural Teachings About Purity
For the Corinthians, Paul lists people who will not inherit the kingdom of God, i.e. go to hell. On his list are the “sexually immoral” or “fornicators,” which means people who have premarital sex! (1 Corinthians 6:9)
This applies to anyone in any era and culture who engages in sexual activity outside the marriage covenant. First Corinthians 5:8 is also a pithy injunction to abstain from all sexual immorality.
The writer to the Hebrews reminds them that sex belongs only in marriage. He believed that sex was only for marriage, so he’s writing not to promiscuous pagans but to legalistic Jewish converts.
Let marriage be held in honor among all. And let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Hebrews 13:4
Then, of course, Jesus taught clearly on this topic. He said having sexual desire in your heart (lust) for a woman who’s not your wife is the same degree of sin as adultery in God’s eyes. If thinking about a woman sexually is sin, then obviously having sex with her is sin.
