Delman Coates, the senior pastor of Mt. Ennon Baptist Church, in Clinton, Maryland, recently delivered a sermon in which he confidently declared that premarital sex is perfectly permissible. Said Coates:

 “Teaching Christians that sex before or outside of marriage is a sin may be tradition…but it is not something supported by the word of God.”

 Again:

 “There is no biblical basis for that teaching… It may sound sacrilegious to others, but I am obligated as a preacher of the word of God to preach the truth of the Bible and not to further myths, superstitions, and lies.”

 I suppose I shouldn’t be entirely surprised by this, as so many of our “churches” today have simply lost confidence in the truth and authority of God’s Word. This was confirmed by a recent Barna poll in which 65 percent of American adults believe cohabitation is a good idea. That being said, a recent survey of professing evangelical Christians indicated that nearly 60% said they would have or have had sex before marriage. There was no indication in the survey as to whether or not they regarded pre-marital sex as morally permissible. Some (perhaps many) may believe it to be morally and biblically sinful but engaged in pre-marital sex anyway.

 One study showed that six years after they started cohabiting, 54 percent of couples had broken up and only 33 percent had married. Even those living together who do get married find it more difficult to keep this commitment compared to those who don’t. Another survey found cohabitating couples who married had a higher likelihood of divorce than those who didn’t.

 I suppose the only place to begin is by taking note of the terminology that we find in the NT. The Greek word that is most often translated as “sexual immorality” is porneia, the word from which derive our English term, pornography. But don’t ever think that the Greek porneia is referring primarily to visual portrayals of sexual activity. We must never read back into the NT the meaning of our modern English words. Rather we must allow the NT to define its terminology in its own way.

 Together with the noun porneia, there is a related form that is often translated “the sexually immoral.” There is also the verb “to commit sexual immorality.” Together these words appear 42x times in the NT. I don’t have time to cite them all, so here is a sampling to give you an idea of how it is understood.

“For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander” (Matthew 15:19).

 “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” (1 Corinthians 5:1).

 “But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one” (1 Corinthians 5:11).

 “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 shall inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9).

 Now it may be helpful to pause here and point out that whereas adultery and homosexuality are forms of porneia or sexual immorality, porneia is a much broader term that includes any and all sexual activity before or outside the marriage relationship.

 “The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body” (1 Corinthians 6:13).

 Here we see that God clearly created the human body for a purpose, and it is not for sexual immorality. Thus, when a person engages in sexual activity outside the bonds of marriage, he/she is violating the very purpose for which God has created us as sexual creatures.

 We who are Christians are not our own. We belong to God, who bought us with the blood of Christ. And our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:15-20). So sexual activity outside marriage is a serious sin against God. It’s not beyond God’s forgiveness or his redeeming and restoring grace. What we do with our bodies matters greatly to God, and if we claim to be followers of Jesus, we will be committed to following his plan and purpose for how we use our bodies and our sexuality.

 “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 6:18).

 “But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband” (1 Corinthians 7:2).

 “We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day” (1 Corinthians 10:8).

 “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality” (Galatians 5:19).

 “But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints” (Ephesians 5:3).

 “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” (Ephesians 5:5).

 In this text we see that God doesn’t single out sexual immorality as worse than other sins of the flesh. Idolatry and covetousness and theft are also heinous in the eyes of God.

 “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Colossians 3:5).

 “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous” (Hebrews 13:4).

 “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death” (Revelation 21:8).

 There is no gray area here. There are no exceptions or qualifications. Nothing is subject to nuance or interpretation. The Bible is crystal clear that all expressions of porneia or sexual immorality are forbidden. The biblical authors refer to porneia as defiling, evil, improper, sinful, fleshly, earthly, and against the will of God. Those who continually and unrepentantly practice it are guilty of unrighteousness and will be subject to judgment by God. Perhaps the most sobering and shocking of all is the repeated declaration that those who continue to practice sexual immorality and do not repent will not inherit the kingdom of God.

 Let me be explicitly clear on that point. Unrepentant sexual immorality puts a person’s soul in jeopardy of eternal damnation. We’re not talking merely about the physical dangers of sexual immorality, as if the only reason for abstaining is to avoid an STD (sexually transmitted disease). The danger to which you expose yourself when you engage persistently and without repentance in sexual immorality is the danger of hell itself. I’m quite sure that some of you don’t want to hear that. But I have a sacred responsibility to tell you what God has said in his written Word. And he has said, as we just saw in 1 Corinthians 6:9,

 “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 shall inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9).

 Every Greek lexicon or dictionary of the NT, together with the more reputable commentaries, are in agreement, that porneia refers to any form of sexual activity before or outside the relationship of monogamous marriage between a man and a woman. It can refer to pre-marital sex, adultery, homosexual practice, prostitution, bestiality, and all other expressions of sexual activity outside the marital relationship between a husband and wife.

 Together with these clear and unequivocal denunciations of and warnings against porneia or sexual immorality there is an equally clear affirmation that the only proper context in which sexual intimacy is permitted is the one flesh marriage between one man and one woman. Any other sexual activity that occurs either before our outside of the union of husband and wife in marriage is prohibited. It is to be avoided and abstained from by all who claim to be followers of Jesus.

 I hope and pray that Mr. Coates will revisit the Scriptures and take the authoritative Word of God more seriously. Failing to do so may encourage the people in his church and elsewhere to embrace a lifestyle that is explicitly contrary to the will of God.