Prior to Christ finding me, I believed that sex before marriage was fine, normal even. I believed that people who tried to get you to avoid sex before marriage were old school. I knew it was in the Bible as a sin, but the Bible was written thousands of years ago, in this time and age, could it really still be a sin?? The answer is a huge YES. God really bopped me in the head for this one.
The Bible, like God, doesn’t change just because it’s 2026 or even if the world makes it to 3026.
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. ”
Hebrews 13:8 CSB
What is “normal” for the world today does not make it okay with God. We are called not to conform to the world. 
“You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God. ”
James 4:4 CSB
Before we get into the Bible verses that discuss sex before marriage, let me preface by saying sex is a beautiful God-given gift IN marriage between a man and a woman.
“So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.””
Matthew 19:6 CSB
So how does God feel about sex before marriage? Let’s take a look..
“Food is for the stomach and the stomach for food,” and God will do away with both of them. However, the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. God raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Don’t you know that your bodies are a part of Christ’s body? So should I take a part of Christ’s body and make it part of a prostitute? Absolutely not! Don’t you know that anyone joined to a prostitute is one body with her? For Scripture says, The two will become one flesh. , But anyone joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. Flee sexual immorality! Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the person who is sexually immoral sins against his own body. Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. So glorify God with your body. ”
1 Corinthians 6:13-20 CSB
“Marriage is to be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, because God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers. ”
Hebrews 13:4 CSB
These are signs of someone who is not truly saved – below
“Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, , drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I am warning you about these things — as I warned you before — that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. ”
Galatians 5:19-21 CSB
If you are saved God lives in you.
“Don’t you yourselves know that you are God’s temple and that the Spirit of God lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is holy, and that is what you are.”
1 Corinthians 3:16-17 CSB
Our bodies are God’s
“Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship. ”
Romans 12:1 CSB
“Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey — either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness?”
Romans 6:16 CSB
So when presented with the opportunity to have sex before marriage – what do we do?
Well, let’s look at what Joseph did when he encountered a married woman who wanted to sleep with him.
“After some time his master’s wife looked longingly at Joseph and said, “Sleep with me.” But he refused. “Look,” he said to his master’s wife, “with me here my master does not concern himself with anything in his house, and he has put all that he owns under my authority. No one in this house is greater than I am. He has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. So how could I do this immense evil, and how could I sin against God? ” Although she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her. Now one day he went into the house to do his work, and none of the household servants were there. She grabbed him by his garment and said, “Sleep with me! ” But leaving his garment in her hand, he escaped and ran outside.”
Genesis 39:7-12 CSB
Joseph literally RAN from that sin which, is what we should be doing.
“Flee from youthful passions, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.”
2 Timothy 2:22 CSB
“If you love me, you will keep my commands.”
John 14:15 CSB
“Additionally then, brothers and sisters, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus, that as you have received instruction from us on how you should live and please God — as you are doing — do this even more. For you know what commands we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is God’s will, your sanctification: that you keep away from sexual immorality, that each of you knows how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not with lustful passions, like the Gentiles, who don’t know God. This means one must not transgress against and take advantage of a brother or sister in this manner, because the Lord is an avenger of all these offenses, as we also previously told and warned you. For God has not called us to impurity but to live in holiness. Consequently, anyone who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit. ”
1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 CSB
If you are like me, you have made some BIG mistakes in your life. I’ve sinned against God. Good news is though when Jesus saves you, you become a new creation. I am no longer defined by my sins of the past. Which also means these are no longer sins I should be doing. It doesn’t mean you won’t struggle with sin but your Savior has defeated sin and death. Cling to him, stay in prayer, stay in His Word, and flee from sin.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come! Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us.”
2 Corinthians 5:17-19 CSB