no sex before marriage
What does the Bible say about no sex before marriage? These are the passages readers found most helpful — tap any citation to read it in context.
15 passages · most helpful first
4May marriage be honorable in every way, and may the marriage bed be immaculate. For God will judge fornicators and adulterers.
1Now concerning the things about which you wrote to me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. 2But, because of fornication, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. 3A husband should fulfill his obligation to his wife, and a wife should also act similarly toward her husband. 4It is not the wife, but the husband, who has power over her body. But, similarly also, it is not the husband, but the wife, who has power over his body. 5So, do not fail in your obligations to one another, except perhaps by consent, for a limited time, so that you may empty yourselves for prayer. And then, return together again, lest Satan tempt you by means of your abstinence. 6But I am saying this, neither as an indulgence, nor as a commandment.
16If a man has led astray a virgin not yet betrothed, and he has slept with her, he shall pay her dowry and have her as a wife.
5For know and understand this: no one who is a fornicator, or lustful, or rapacious (for these are a kind of service to idols) holds an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
24For this reason, a man shall leave behind his father and mother, and he shall cling to his wife; and the two shall be as one flesh.
18Flee from fornication. Every sin whatsoever that a man commits is outside of the body, but whoever fornicates, sins against his own body. 19Or do you not know that your bodies are the Temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20For you have been bought at a great price. Glorify and carry God in your body.
18Flee from fornication. Every sin whatsoever that a man commits is outside of the body, but whoever fornicates, sins against his own body.
2But, because of fornication, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.
1Therefore, concerning other things, brothers, we ask and beg you, in the Lord Jesus, that, just as you have received from us the way in which you ought to walk and to please God, so also may you walk, in order that you may abound all the more. 2For you know what precepts I have given to you through the Lord Jesus. 3For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from fornication, 4that each one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor, 5not in passions of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God, 6and that no one should overwhelm or circumvent his brother in business. For the Lord is the vindicator of all these things, just as we have preached and testified to you.
1Therefore, as most beloved sons, be imitators of God. 2And walk in love, just as Christ also loved us and delivered himself for us, as an oblation and a sacrifice to God, with a fragrance of sweetness. 3But let not any kind of fornication, or impurity, or rapacity so much as be named among you, just as is worthy of the saints, 4nor any indecent, or foolish, or abusive talk, for this is without purpose; but instead, give thanks. 5For know and understand this: no one who is a fornicator, or lustful, or rapacious (for these are a kind of service to idols) holds an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. 6Let no one seduce you with empty words. For because of these things, the wrath of God was sent upon the sons of unbelief.
19Now the works of the flesh are manifest; they are: fornication, lust, homosexuality, self-indulgence,
6But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. 7Because of this, a man shall leave behind his father and mother, and he shall cling to his wife. 8And these two shall be one in flesh. And so, they are now, not two, but one flesh. 9Therefore, what God has joined together, let no man separate.”
12Let no one despise your youth, but be an example among the faithful in word, in behavior, in charity, in faith, in chastity.
7And also Sodom and Gomorrah, and the adjoining cities, in similar ways, having given themselves over to fornication and to the pursuing of other flesh, were made an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire.
3But let not any kind of fornication, or impurity, or rapacity so much as be named among you, just as is worthy of the saints,