What is Sexual Immorality

While everyone says that sexual intercourse can only be done in marriage, I feel that noone speaks about other kinds of sex. There is petting intimate parts, oral sex and anal sex. Neither of these is sexual intercourse but I still would like to know if it is sinful or not if these or any of these are done before marriage. I also would like to know if by doing any of these within marriage is sinful or not. I would highly appreciate a reply to this and any references to the Bible if possible. While waiting for your reply, thanks and best regards,

I did a search in the New International Version of the bible for "sex*", where the star can represent any number of characters (hence, it would include such words as sexual for example) and, out of the 54 yielded results, I picked out the following:

EX 19:14 After Moses had gone down the mountain to the people, he consecrated them, and they washed their clothes. [15] Then he said to the people, "Prepare yourselves for the third day. Abstain from sexual relations."

Sexual relations, as in ANY sexual relations, can take one away from holiness and holiness of body. Hence the abstinence so that they could ‘prepare’ their bodies for the holy day.

LEV 18:6 " `No one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the LORD.
LEV 18:7 " `Do not dishonor your father by having sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother; do not have relations with her.
LEV 18:8 " `Do not have sexual relations with your father's wife; that would dishonor your father.
LEV 18:9 " `Do not have sexual relations with your sister, either your father's daughter or your mother's daughter, whether she was born in the same home or elsewhere.
LEV 18:10 " `Do not have sexual relations with your son's daughter or your daughter's daughter; that would dishonor you.
LEV 18:11 " `Do not have sexual relations with the daughter of your father's wife, born to your father; she is your sister.
LEV 18:12 " `Do not have sexual relations with your father's sister; she is your father's close relative.
LEV 18:13 " `Do not have sexual relations with your mother's sister, because she is your mother's close relative.
LEV 18:14 " `Do not dishonor your father's brother by approaching his wife to have sexual relations; she is your aunt.
LEV 18:15 " `Do not have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law. She is your son's wife; do not have relations with her.
LEV 18:16 " `Do not have sexual relations with your brother's wife; that would dishonor your brother.
LEV 18:17 " `Do not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter. Do not have sexual relations with either her son's daughter or her daughter's daughter; they are her close relatives. That is wickedness.
LEV 18:18 " `Do not take your wife's sister as a rival wife and have sexual relations with her while your wife is living.
LEV 18:19 " `Do not approach a woman to have sexual relations during the uncleanness of her monthly period.
LEV 18:20 " `Do not have sexual relations with your neighbor's wife and defile yourself with her.
LEV 18:21 " `Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.
LEV 18:22 " `Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.
LEV 18:23 " `Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion.
LEV 18:24 " `Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. [25] Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. [26] But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the aliens living among you must not do any of these detestable things, [27] for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled. [28] And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you.
LEV 18:29 " `Everyone who does any of these detestable things--such persons must be cut off from their people. [30] Keep my requirements and do not follow any of the detestable customs that were practiced before you came and do not defile yourselves with them. I am the LORD your God.' "
LEV 19:1 The LORD said to Moses, [2] "Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: `Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.
MT 15:16 "Are you still so dull?" Jesus asked them. [17] "Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? [18] But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man `unclean.' [19] For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. [20] These are what make a man `unclean'; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him `unclean.' "

Cleanliness is important for holiness and allows us to be closer to God.

AC 15:24 We have heard that some went out from us without our authorization and disturbed you, troubling your minds by what they said. [25] So we all agreed to choose some men and send them to you with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul-- [26] men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. [27] Therefore we are sending Judas and Silas to confirm by word of mouth what we are writing. [28] It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: [29] You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things.

This is general good advice.

RO 13:12 So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. [13] Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. [14] Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

1CO 6:9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders [10] nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. [11] And that is what some of you were. 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.

1CO 6:12 "Everything is permissible for me"--but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"--but I will not be mastered by anything. [13] "Food for the stomach and the stomach for food"--but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. [14] By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. [15] Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! [16] Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, "The two will become one flesh." [17] But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.

1CO 6:18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. [19] Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; [20] you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

1CO 7:1 Now for the matters you wrote about: It is good for a man not to marry. [2] But since there is so much immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband. [3] The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. [4] The wife's body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband's body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife. [5] Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. [6] I say this as a concession, not as a command. [7] I wish that all men were as I am. But each man has his own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.

1CO 7:8 Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I am. [9] But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

GAL 5:13 You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. [14] The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." [15] If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

GAL 5:16 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. [17] For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. [18] But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.

GAL 5:19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; [20] idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions [21] and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

GAL 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, [23] gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. [24] Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. [25] Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

COL 3:1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. [2] Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. [3] For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. [4] When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

COL 3:5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.

1TH 4:1 Finally, brothers, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. [2] For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.

1TH 4:3 It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; [4] that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, [5] not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; [6] and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. [7] For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. [8] Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.

In summation, I would say that it is important to focus on the narrow gates, to walk down the long path of life, not to stray to the left or to the right, down the broad path leading to destruction. To be able to focus that far ahead, you have to focus your vision and not let yourself get distracted.

For me, the message essentially tells me that its a matter of focus and, to maintain your focus, you need the restraint (for example, bodily control) to not let yourself get distracted from your goal.

This applies, as you can see from the scripture, even if you ARE married. You could be married and have a nice house etc. etc., but if you are not focused on the path, you could very well be missing the entire point.

I would therefore like to reduce my response to encourage you to concentrate on focus.

Hopefully I have shed some helpful light on this matter for you.