“Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.”
1 Corinthians 6:18
When did it become acceptable for dating to mean, fornicating like wild bunnies? I know that fornication (sex outside of marriage) has been going on from the beginning, because God in His precious Word talks about it and condemns it from the beginning. Sex was always meant to be part of marriage – never outside of marriage. Case in point: “And if a man entice a maid that is not betrothed, and lie with her, he shall surely endow her to be his wife. If her father utterly refuse to give her unto him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins.” Exodus 22:16-17
Just imagine how much a man would have to spend every time he fornicated. He would have to pay a dowry to the father of the girl each and every time. That’s above and beyond what the date cost him. There would be some seriously broke dudes out there. Or, the dude would be required to marry that first girl he fornicated with, because, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” Genesis 2: 24. Any sex after that with a different person would be adultery – also condemned by scripture (Exodus 20:14).
On the flip side, if an unscrupulous father had several fornicating daughters and he refused to let any of them marry, he could make some serious money. This type of deceptive inappropriate behavior by a father is also condemned by God. No good loving father would ever do anything like this anyway.
My point is that fornication is condemned by God more than 20 times in the New Testament alone. There is no excuse for couples to equate “dating” with “sex”. That’s not what dating is about. Dating is about learning as much about a person as possible to determine if they are the person you would like to one day marry. It’s about learning the little behaviors that endear them to you or repulse you. It’s about sharing your wishes, thoughts and dreams with each other. It is not about seeing how much pleasure you can provide each other while sinning against God by fornicating like wild bunnies.
Have I ever fornicated, yep, and I’m ashamed of it. Thank God I’m born again and God has forgiven me. But, the fact that I’m forgiven or you are forgiven does not give us license to continue to fornicate. It is condemned by God and therefore we should flee from fornication, just like it says in today’s scripture verse. God will not allow you to continue in unrepented sin without consequences. Repentance means to turn from the sin and never return. We’re humans so sometimes we will not be perfect in our repentance, but it is our job to try to truly repent and sin no more.
Dating should not automatically involve sex. It should always be a relationship that honors God and both people involved.