Fornicate – To habitually abandon commitments in order to establish new commitments; to repeatedly abandon and commit from one partner to another; to vacillate between commitments
This word appears in its various forms 44 times in Scripture: 5 times to Israel in their Masoretic Text Old Testament; 5 times to Israel in their Koine Greek Old Testament (Matthew thru John); 3 times to the Body of Christ in the transition book of Acts; 17 times to the Body of Christ in the Gospel of Grace (Romans thru Philemon); and 9 times to Israel’s Little Flock in their tribulation books (Hebrews thru Revelation)..
To use the word fornicate to simply mean sexual intercourse outside of marriage is to pervert the word. The act of sexual intercourse is exactly that, sexual intercourse. Fornication is a very specific word that indicates and stipulates a very specific lifestyle: the habitual and repeated abandoning and reestablishing of commitments. Sex is not a required element.
The required elements of fornication are the abandonment of a commitment in order to establish a new commitment, habitually and repeatedly, as a matter of lifestyle. Today this practice is common, beginning as early as junior high school, in both sexes, and within all monetary and social stations.
Sexual intercourse is not a required element of fornication. The issue is the repeated and habitual betrayal of covenant relationships. Most Scriptural references deal with spiritual fornication, but also include the selling of a birthright and committing fraud against someone with whom you have a covenant relationship; such as in a parent or sibling relationship.
Sex is not a required element of fornication, but the act of fornication may include sex as the means, or vehicle, of perpetrating the fraud.
Today, as the English language is being continually perverted, the term has been misapplied to specifically denote sexual intercourse outside the bounds of marriage. Today’s definition is according to religious indoctrination and Presumed Public Knowledge, it is not by any means a true or Scriptural definition; it is merely a tool of religion for manipulation of people through ignorance.
Isaiah 23:17 And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the LORD will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.
Ezekiel 16:26 Thou hast also committed fornication with the Egyptians thy neighbours, great of flesh; and hast increased thy whoredoms, to provoke me to anger.
Contextually, these two passages are a reference to men turning from a total trust in God to the trust in what the strength of man can accomplish, without any reliance on God; abandonment of their covenant relationship with God in order to establish a new relationship; the use of the word fornication tells us that this practice is repetitive and habitual. Notice also the use of the word “whoredom” in Ezekiel 16 (above); Israel is obviously compromising their principles for personal gain, without any expectation of permanency, in conjunction with their fornication … and it isn’t sexual.
Notice the elements listed by God. Are they all strictly sexual? According to God, each of these things, including fornication, are idolatry.
Colossians 3:5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
Romans 1:28-32 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; [29] Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, [30] Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, [31] Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: [32] Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
First, notice the punctuation. These verses constitute a single list divided into several categories with a single conclusion. Each term listed is a separate element within a category. If this were a definition of fornication, the punctuation would not be a comma. The difference between a covenantbreaker and a fornicator is the element of habitual and continuous.
Moreover, which is worse, being a fornicator or being proud? Being a murderer or being a gossip? According to God’s list, they are all equal; to be one is to be all! That is why hell will be filled with sweet, genteel, morally upright, and benevolent people. You cannot qualify for salvation; your personal righteousness is worthless.
Second, notice the verse numbering. Don’t let the address blind or distract you from what is in the neighborhood. Although there is no evidence of intended corruption by Stephanus or Whittingham in the use of chapter divisions and verse numbering, it does result in confusing capitalization, punctuation, and continuity. Be diligent in study; pay attention to the spelling, punctuation, capitalization, continuity, and context without regard to the added chapter divisions and verse numbers, which are solely for the purpose of reference; chapter and verse numbers are not scripture.
Galatians 5:18-21 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. [19] Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, [20] Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, [21] Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Fornication is a separate issue from inordinate affection (homosexuality, bestiality, pedophilia, necrophilia, etc.), as well as other non-sexual issues (murder, backbiting, sedition, hatred, heresy, etc.).
If fornication is strictly an issue of sex, then everything else on these lists provided by God is also strictly sexual; which they obviously are not. Therefore, neither is fornication strictly sexual. Sex may be an included element but it is not the primary factor. Christianity invokes these lists in order to redefine the elements of fornication to that of exclusive sexual misconduct. By redefining the term “fornication” to be strictly sexual, they claim that sex outside their chosen parameters is unclean, inordinate, evil, and covetous.
Don’t redefine the obvious; sex may be a vehicle but it is not the offense. The issue is the repeated and habitual betrayal of a covenant relationship in order to establish or accommodate a new relationship.
I Thessalonians 4:3-6 For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: [4] That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; [5] Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God: [6] That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified.
Notice how this passage is self-defining (notice the punctuation). Abstain from fornication: remain sanctified and honorable, which is not to be given to being driven by desires, which will cause you to defraud your brother with whom you are bound to by relationship, because it will not go unpunished by God.
Since we already know that there is no Divine Intervention, we know that God will avenge the act of fraud committed because of your uncontrolled desire for personal gain either through His institution of government or on the Day of Judgment. Again, the act of defrauding does not require a sexual act.
Hebrews 12:16 Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
What we see in this passage is the act committed by Esau is the selling of his birthright. His fornication did not have any sexual act associated with it; it is an act of moral and ethical abandonment because of uncontrolled desire. By God’s use of the word fornicator, we know with confidence, that the moral and ethical abandonment is a repeated and ongoing issue with Esau.
I Corinthians 5:1 It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.
The issue here is not that the son is having sex with his father’s wife. The issue of fornication specifically stipulated by God is the defrauding of the father. Although the method of fraud in this passage is sexual, sex is only the vehicle of the fraud. The issue is still fraud, the habitual abandonment of the father/son relationship. If the issue were simply sexual, the adulteress wife would also have been addressed. She was obviously engaging in adultery, but apparently, she was only involved as a whore, prostitute, or for personal satisfaction, which God does not reveal because it is not the issue. The only issue addressed by God in this passage is the fornication of the son. Apparently, the son repeatedly and habitually betrayed the father/son relationship; the mention of his father’s wife is only identifying the method or vehicle of the violation at this juncture.
To habitually abandon commitments in order to establish new commitments; to repeatedly abandon and commit from one partner to another; to vacillate between commitments.
Sex is not a required element of Fornication. Most acts of fornication do not include sex. Religion’s wrong definition, which is strictly sexual, enables them to fornicate without being held accountable to their peers … but they are still accountable to God.
See also Corrupt, Defile, Profane, Prostitute, Whore