What Does the Bible Say About Sex Outside Marriage?

Hebrews 13:4 ESV / 32 helpful votes

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

1 Corinthians 6:18 ESV / 25 helpful votes

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

1 Corinthians 6:9 ESV / 17 helpful votes

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,

Genesis 2:24 ESV / 17 helpful votes

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

1 Corinthians 7:1-40 ESV / 15 helpful votes

Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. 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. 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. ...

1 Corinthians 7:3 ESV / 14 helpful votes

The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband.

1 Corinthians 7:2 ESV / 12 helpful votes

But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.

Exodus 20:14 ESV / 12 helpful votes

“You shall not commit adultery.

Galatians 5:19 ESV / 10 helpful votes

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,

1 Corinthians 7:5 ESV / 9 helpful votes

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.

Leviticus 18:22 ESV / 9 helpful votes

You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.

Ephesians 5:25 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,

Ephesians 5:3 ESV / 8 helpful votes

But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.

1 Corinthians 7:2-5 ESV / 8 helpful votes

But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. 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. 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.

1 Corinthians 6:1-20 ESV / 8 helpful votes

When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, ...

Matthew 19:4-6 ESV / 8 helpful votes

He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 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’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Matthew 19:1-30 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Now when Jesus had finished these sayings, he went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. And large crowds followed him, and he healed them there. And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 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’? ...

Matthew 15:19-20 ESV / 8 helpful votes

For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”

Matthew 5:28 ESV / 8 helpful votes

But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Proverbs 5:15-19 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well. Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets? Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you. Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love.

Ephesians 5:1-33 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. 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. ...

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 ESV / 7 helpful votes

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, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 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.

Ephesians 5:5 ESV / 6 helpful votes

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.

1 Corinthians 6:18-20 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 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, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 ESV / 6 helpful votes

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, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

1 Corinthians 6:2 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases?

Romans 1:24-32 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 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. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 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. 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. ...

John 3:16-17 ESV / 6 helpful votes

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Exodus 22:16 ESV / 6 helpful votes

“If a man seduces a virgin who is not betrothed and lies with her, he shall give the bride-price for her and make her his wife.

1 Corinthians 6:4 ESV / 5 helpful votes

So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church?

Deuteronomy 22:28 ESV / 5 helpful votes

“If a man meets a virgin who is not betrothed, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are found,

Revelation 11:1-19 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months. And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. ...

Revelation 1:1 ESV / 4 helpful votes

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,

Jude 1:7 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

1 John 1:9 ESV / 4 helpful votes

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 ESV / 4 helpful votes

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;

Colossians 3:5 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

Galatians 5:2 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.

2 Corinthians 12:21 ESV / 4 helpful votes

I fear that when I come again my God may humble me before you, and I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, and sensuality that they have practiced.

1 Corinthians 10:8 ESV / 4 helpful votes

We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day.

1 Corinthians 7:8 ESV / 4 helpful votes

To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single, as I am.

1 Corinthians 7:4 ESV / 4 helpful votes

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.

1 Corinthians 7:1 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.”

1 Corinthians 6:16 ESV / 4 helpful votes

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.”

1 Corinthians 6:13 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“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.

1 Corinthians 6:3 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!

1 Corinthians 5:1 ESV / 4 helpful votes

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.

Mark 10:6-9 ESV / 4 helpful votes

But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Matthew 15:19 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.

Matthew 15:4 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’

Matthew 5:27-28 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Song of Solomon 4:10 ESV / 4 helpful votes

How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much better is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your oils than any spice!

Leviticus 18:2 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, I am the Lord your God.

Leviticus 18:1-30 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, I am the Lord your God. 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. You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord. ...

Genesis 1:26-28 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Proverbs 6:32 ESV / 3 helpful votes

He who commits adultery lacks sense; he who does it destroys himself.

56 Bible Verses about Sex Outside Marriage

Hebrews 13:4 ESV / 32 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 6:18 ESV / 25 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 6:9 ESV / 17 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Genesis 2:24 ESV / 17 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 7:1-40 ESV / 15 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 7:3 ESV / 14 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 7:2 ESV / 12 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Exodus 20:14 ESV / 12 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Galatians 5:19 ESV / 10 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 7:5 ESV / 9 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Leviticus 18:22 ESV / 9 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Ephesians 5:25 ESV / 8 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Ephesians 5:3 ESV / 8 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 7:2-5 ESV / 8 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 6:1-20 ESV / 8 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 19:4-6 ESV / 8 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 19:1-30 ESV / 8 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 15:19-20 ESV / 8 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 5:28 ESV / 8 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 5:15-19 ESV / 8 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Ephesians 5:1-33 ESV / 7 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 ESV / 7 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Ephesians 5:5 ESV / 6 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 6:18-20 ESV / 6 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 ESV / 6 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 6:2 ESV / 6 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Romans 1:24-32 ESV / 6 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

John 3:16-17 ESV / 6 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Exodus 22:16 ESV / 6 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 6:4 ESV / 5 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Deuteronomy 22:28 ESV / 5 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Revelation 11:1-19 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Revelation 1:1 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Jude 1:7 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 John 1:9 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Colossians 3:5 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Galatians 5:2 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

2 Corinthians 12:21 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 10:8 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 7:8 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 7:4 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 7:1 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 6:16 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 6:13 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 6:3 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 5:1 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Mark 10:6-9 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 15:19 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 15:4 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 5:27-28 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Song of Solomon 4:10 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Leviticus 18:2 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Leviticus 18:1-30 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Genesis 1:26-28 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 6:32 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

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