If this were the only consequence of sex outside of marriage it
alone would justify
complete avoidance. How can we insult and injure the high kindness of
the the most High God by basely ignoring His will, without suffering
serious consequences? Why do we continually provoke His fierce jealousy
over something He hates? This is the chief and the heart evil of all sin
- it wounds friendship with God.
'Let no man deceive you with vain
words: for because of these things comes the wrath of God upon
the children of disobedience.'
King David after committing adultery with Bathsheba, murdering her
husband, betraying his own household, and setting
an appalling example to his whole nation cried out when first convicted
by the Holy Spirit, 'Against
Thee and Thee only have I sinned'. Joseph when faced with the
persistent seduction of his master's wife, protested,
'How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?'
It is a sin which greatly provokes God's anger and curse, condemns its
perpetrator to separation from God. Only the Divine gift of repentance
and the ordained blood payment can wash the punishment and power of this
sin away, but even then its injurious consequences endure (as for
David).
This sin especially turns us against God and His mercy, making us 'enemies in your mind by wicked works'.
2. Emotional and physical
bonding with future life partner scarred and weakened.
The
Bible teaches that sex even of the most casual and transitory nature
forges deep emotional bonds.
In an astonishing allusion to the first description of marriage, the
Holy Spirit applies the same strong terms to a once off and apparently 'casual' sexual
union.
'What?
know
you not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two,
says he, shall be one flesh.'
The
strength and nature of this bond has been confirmed by a number of
social and psychological studies.
Entrance into such a powerful bond before marriage with a partner
other than the lifemate injures and scars that future relationship.
3. Coarsening and degrading of
the beauty and strength of whole spirit.
It
is not difficult to see the coarsening and debasing effects of
habitual use of this sin in those who practice it.
This is a frequent theme of the prophets in exposing idolatry, using
adultery or fornication as a simile.
Ezekiel describes habitual abusers
of this command
as those 'whose flesh is as the
flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.'
Careless vices degrade and desensitise our sensitivity and sympathy.
Hosea
says, 'Fornication and
wine and new wine take away the heart'.
Paul writes, 'For he that sows to
his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption'.
Twice he describes those dedicated to carnal lusts as 'without natural affection'.
4. Cripples self control and
poisons other virtues
Once
the walls of the city of the soul are breached, Satan easily
captures its citadel. The scripture describes those driven and
controlled by their lusts.
Unwitting puppets of our own vile desires and of the Enemy of the soul,
'who were dead in trespasses and sins;
Wherein
in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according
to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience...
in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind;
and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.'
Those who concede to passion become more self willed,
restless, moody, and stubborn, they are described as
'unstable as water'. The affections become poorer and often are
strangely misfocussed on minor issues.
Spiritual
jewels like humility, gentleness, meekness are
stripped away and spoilt.
Like a
venomous snakebite. 
5. Loss of discernment
Once
enticed by sin, the soul becomes more credulous, more easily
deceived. Spiritual insight and perception is lost, the soul left in
darkness and confusion.
'Such
is
the way of an adulterous woman; she eats, and wipes her mouth,
and says, I have done no wickedness.'
'O Lord,
to us belongs confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes,
and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.'
In wilful ignorance of wisdom and grace
'Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them,
because of the blindness of their heart'
6. Bitterness and hardness of
heart, no real satisfaction of spirit, a loss of contentment and
peace.
Solomon
writes,
'For the lips of a strange woman
drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: but her
end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword. Her feet go
down to death; her steps take hold on hell.'
'Destruction (bruising) and misery are in their ways...the way of peace they have not known'
Ezekiel's
chapter
16 is a tragic case study in the insatiable
and progressively enslaving character of sexual lusts.
Isaiah and Paul warn us,
'But the wicked are like the
troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and
dirt.
There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked'
Sexuality is a sacred and honourable Divine gift, but its misuse outside the Covenant of matrimony brings bitter fruits.
'What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.'
As is easily witnessed in its habitual practitioners, brings a kind of Zombie-like insensitivity to the spiritual.
'But she that lives in pleasure is dead while she lives.'
- 7. Fosters
ill discipline and disharmony at home, rots and defiles society.
Homebuilding
is
a rare and precious skill not easily or lightly gained in this vile,
self-pampering, deceitful and dangerous age,
'The aged women likewise, that they
be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not
given to much wine, teachers of good things; that they may teach
the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their
children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient
to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.'
'Be
not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows, that
shall he also reap.
For he that
sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that
sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.'
Who can understand his errors? cleanse
thou me from secret faults.
Keep
back
thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion
over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the
great transgression.
Let the words of my
mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O
LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.
(Psalm 19.12-4)
The neglected jewel of modesty
Why
temporary marriages, of both Sunni but especially the Shi'a kind,
are deeply offensive to God
- a cloak for fornication.
Marriage is a solemn covenant entered into by both parties - Malachi
2.14-15a
'...Wherefore? Because the LORD hath
been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom
thou hast dealt treacherously:
yet is she thy companion, and the
wife of thy covenant.
And did not he make one? ...'
The marriage covenant is frequently used by God as an illustration and
image of His relationship with all His chosen people.
Ezek.16.8
'Now when I passed by thee, and
looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I
spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness:
yea, I sware unto thee, and entered
into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou becamest
mine.'
A covenant necessarily involves an oath of imprecation for its
violation.
It is an extremely serious matter to violate a covenant - and usually
results in a Divine penalty of death.
So in the same passage, the prophet after listing the exasperating
apostasy of
the Bride and
her severe punishment, writes, v.59:
'For thus saith the Lord GOD; I will
even deal with thee as thou hast done, which hast despised the oath
in breaking the covenant.'
Other passages also spell out the serious and usually fatal
consequences of violating a covenant:
'And I will give the men that have
transgressed my covenant, which have not performed the words of the
covenant which they had made before me, when they cut the calf in
twain,
and passed between the parts
thereof, [a means commonly employed to show the nature of the
penalty of violating it]
The princes of Judah, and the
princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the
people of the land, which passed between the parts of the calf;
I will even give them into the hand
of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life:
and their dead bodies shall be for
meat unto the fowls of the heaven, and to the beasts of the earth.'
Jer. 34.18-20
'And I will bring a sword upon you,
that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant:
.... and ye shall be delivered into
the hand of the enemy.' Lev. 26.59
God hates the violation of marriage covenants:
'For the LORD, the God of Israel,
saith that he hates putting away [divorce] : for one covers
injustice with his garment, saith the LORD of hosts:
therefore take heed to your spirit,
that ye deal not treacherously.' Mal.2.16
He forbids a remarriage after divorce to the original partner, as 'an abomination' Deut.24.4 - the
same word is used for idols, incest, bestiality and homosexuality.
Christ warned that divorce amongst believers for reasons other than fornication (serious
sexual deviation) is adultery.
These temporary and secret forms of marriage are nothing more than a
cloak for sin and uncleanness,
and in the sight of God's
law are extra
marital cohabitation (Zina).
