Scripture for Life:
Living Together Outside
of Marriage
What is God’s will regarding sex?
1Thessalonians 4:3- For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from fornication;
1Corinthians 6:18-NRSV Shun fornication! Every sin that a person commits is outside the body; but the fornicator sins against the body itself.
Colossians 3:5-NRSV Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry).
Ephesians 5:3-NRSV But fornication and impurity of any kind, or greed, must not even be mentioned among you, as is proper among saints.
What if I am having an ongoing sexual relationship outside of marriage?
Revelation 21:8-NRSV But as for . . . the fornicators. . . their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death."
But no one ever said it was a sin before? Everyone else thinks it is OK.
Revelation 2:14-NRSV But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the people of Israel, so that they would eat food sacrificed to idols and practice fornication.
It is an old tactic of Satan to convince people that sin is not sin.
What does sin do to me?
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death,
Ezekiel 18:20 The person who sins shall die. A child shall not suffer for the iniquity of a parent, nor a parent suffer for the iniquity of a child; the righteousness of the righteous shall be his own, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be his own.
Sin destroys life. It is why we die physically. Sin is what kills us spiritually.
1Corinthians 6:9-10 Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators,
idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers--none of these will inherit the kingdom of God.
To sin cuts us off from God. Sin excludes us from His kingdom. Outside of His kingdom is only the God of judgment.
Isaiah 59:2-NRSV Rather, your iniquities have been barriers between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
Sin is a barrier between us and God we cannot climb over. Because of our sins God hides His face from us and will not be our heavenly Father, but only our judge.
Galatians 6:7-8 Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit.
If we reject the gift of God in favor of holding onto a sin, we destroy the spiritual life God would put into us. And we receive judgment.
Revelation 21:8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, the murderers, the fornicators, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death."
The judgment that falls on those outside
of the grace of God is a terror.
What happens if I pretend
I am not sinning and take communion while I am engaged in an ongoing
sin that I am not sorry about and don't want to stop?
1Corinthians 11: 27-32 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord. Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves. For this reason many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
In Communion the true body and true
blood of Christ are given to us.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1Peter 1:18-21 You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish. He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake. Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God.
There is nothing we can do to make up
for our sins.
Acts 3:19 Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out,
Even when we are honest with ourselves
and know our sin, we can be bold and turn to God confessing those
sins. He will transform us with the news of His Gospel, that we are
forgiven because of Christ’s dying for us on the cross.
NAB 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins,
He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we
make Him a liar and His word is not in us.
Can I go on sinning and expect to be OK with God?
Revelation 2:5 Remember then from what you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.
God certainly is not mocked. A false repentance will not do. God seeks a genuine awareness that sin is sin and wants us to turn from that sin by the power of His Gospel.
Proverbs 28:13 No one who conceals transgressions will prosper, but one who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.
We may conceal our sins from others, but never from God. He knows a genuine confession. He knows a contrite heart from the heart that seeks merely to escape the consequences of sin while being able to continue in the sin.
Isaiah 55:7 let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the LORD, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
To continue in sin is to continue under the judgment of God. To be turned from that sin is to find abundant mercy and pardon.
Ephesians 4:22 You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts,
As Christians we do not live as we once lived, but we live new lives by the power of His Spirit and not out of our flesh and lusts.
Hebrews 10:26 For if we willfully persist in sin after having received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
A sever warning for the unrepentant.
I am sorry for my sins. What does God say to me?
Romans 3 :23-24 since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
To you who are sorry for your sin and have confessed it to God, God forgives all your sins as a gift because of the redemption through the death and resurrection of Christ.
Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have
been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the
gift of God For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this
is not your own doing; it is the gift of God--
To you who are sorry for your sins, Christ has given you a gift, salvation through faith. You do not have to do anything. Christ has done it all and gives you forgiveness for your sins.
Ephesians 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace
To you who are sorry for your sins,
every single sin you have ever done has been redeemed through His
holy precious blood. Do not fear. You are redeemed.
copyright
Pastor David D. Reedy, 1996
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Rev. David D. Reedy 2002
Prince
of Peace Lutheran Church
Dayton Tennessee
423.775.4253
Prince of Peace is a LCMS congregation located in Rhea County Tennessee, serving the entire county of some 32,000 people.