Stop Fornicating

I speak to you in the name of the One, True, and Living God. Amen.


There is entirely too much fornication going on in this church!


That is what Paul told the church in Corinth. He said that by having sex with prostitutes, they were committing the worst sin possible.

Why is this?


Thou shalt not commit adultery!

Having sex with a prostitute was not automatically committing adultery. For it to be adultery, the woman had to be married.

There are about twenty different places in the Bible that talk about prostitutes. About half of them speak of prostitution negatively. Other than this letter from Paul to the church in Corinth, none of them say that sex with prostitutes is a sin. In fact, in the old law only one group of people is told to stay away from prostitutes: the sons of Aaron or the priests.


So if having sex with a prostitute was not a sin before Jesus came, what changed?

The church in Corinth is saying that they are no longer bound by the old law. “All things are lawful for me.”

Paul says “you are right … but ….”

Stop fornicating!


What is Paul trying to tell them? And more importantly, what am I trying to tell you?


When we are baptized, we invite the Holy Spirit to dwell within us. We become Christ’s body. We are “spiritual” beings. Paul is not against fornication because it is sex. He is not even really speaking against prostitutes or prostitution. He is not saying that only people married to each other are the only ones who should have sex. He is dead set against fornication.


What is fornication? – I look to my handy Greek dictionary … looking up fornication … porneu,w … illicit, illegal, or unnatural sex. From the rest of what Paul is saying, I believe he means the last of those meanings: unnatural sex. But is fornication only about sex? If we look back to the Old Testament, there is a similar word in Hebrew. It is used to describe worshiping idols or false gods.


We may not do it all the time, but every once in a while, we all indulge in fornication. We bow down at the altar of the almighty dollar. We go out and celebrate and eat or drink too much. We make choices that are not good for ourselves or for those around us. This is what Paul is saying to you and to me.


STOP FORNICATING!!!


Because of what Jesus did for us, we are all spiritual beings. We are no longer just flesh. Every time we use our spiritual bodies for something that is either not spiritual or is against the spirit, we damage ourselves. Jesus said that we are no longer bound by the old law. Instead, the law has been written in our hearts. When we break that law, God does not judge us. God does not give up on us. God does not need to judge us. We can judge ourselves. We know what we did. We know it was wrong.


Unfortunately knowing it is wrong doesn’t always stop us. We go ahead and do it anyway. So every once in a while we all need someone like Paul to tell us to stop.

Thanks be to God.