What Happened To “Old Fashioned” Fornication?
Brian R. Kenyon

“Fornication” may simply be defined as any sexual intercourse or interaction not according to God’s law. Fornication is an “umbrella term” under which all kinds of unlawful sexual interaction can be placed (adultery, homosexuality, bestiality, pre-marital sex, etc.). Any kind of fornication is sin (1 Cor. 6:18; Gal. 5:19; Jude 7), and will separate us from God (Isa. 59:1-2).

The title of this article does not reflect a glamorization of “old fashioned” fornication, but an observation. At one time it seemed the only fornication we heard about was cheating spouses or heterosexual couples having sex before marriage. These kinds of fornication are bad enough (cf. Eph. 5:3), but now we are constantly bombarded with news about homosexuality, “kiddy porn,” parents prostituting their toddlers, and older men being caught by internet stings where they think they are going to have sex with a five year old. Where does it end? Since members of the opposite sex were created to be naturally attracted to each other (Gen. 2:22-23), it is easier to understand people succumbing to temptation and committing heterosexual fornication, but what about homosexuality or pedophilia? How does one even get to the point of desiring the same gender and/or young children, not to mention carrying out the acts?

The answer is easy, though no less disturbing. When we refuse God, sexual perversion is inevitable. Paul said that the Gentiles “knew God,” but “did not glorify Him as God,” and “For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful...” (Rom. 1:21, 26-27, NKJ). Ultimately, God is the only reason to be moral. For years, our culture has tried (with partial success) to remove God. When God is removed, the only moral direction we can go is down. If there is no God, there is no ultimate reason to live morally—anything goes! May we ever “sanctify the Lord God in [our] hearts” (1 Pet. 3:15), and abstain from sin.