Sexual Immorality in the Holy Bible

Old Testament

Genesis 18 The Three Visitors

The LORD appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground. When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way.

Then the LORD said, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him."

Then the LORD said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.

The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the LORD. Then Abraham approached him and said: "Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?"

The LORD said, "If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake."

Then Abraham spoke up again: "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city because of five people?"

"If I find forty-five there," he said, "I will not destroy it." Once again he spoke to him, "What if only forty are found there?" He said, "For the sake of forty, I will not do it."

Then he said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?"

He answered, "I will not do it if I find thirty there."

Abraham said, "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?"

He said, "For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it."

Then he said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?"

He answered, "For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it." When the LORD had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.

Genesis 19 Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed

The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground.” "My lords," he said, "please turn aside to your servant's house. You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning." "No," they answered, "we will spend the night in the square."

But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate. Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. They called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them."

Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him and said, "No, my friends. Don't do this wicked thing. Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don't do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof."

"Get out of our way," they replied. And they said, "This fellow came here as an alien, and now he wants to play the judge! We'll treat you worse than them." They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door. But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door.”

Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door. The two men said to Lot, "Do you have anyone else here—sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, because we are going to destroy this place.

The outcry to the LORD against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it." So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters. He said, "Hurry and get out of this place, because the LORD is about to destroy the city!" But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.

With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, "Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished" When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the LORD was merciful to them.

As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, "Flee for your lives! Don't look back, and don't stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!" But Lot said to them, "No, my lords, please! Your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life.

But I can't flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I'll die. Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it—it is very small, isn't it? Then my life will be spared." He said to him, "Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of. But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it." (That is why the town was called Zoar.

By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. Then the LORD rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the LORD out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land. But Lot's wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

New Testament

1 Corinthians 6:9-20

“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 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 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."

"Everything is permissible for me"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"—but I will not be mastered by anything. "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.” By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also."

"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! 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." But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit."

"Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. 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; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.”

Galatians 5:19-21

"The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and dedauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, 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."

1Thessalonians 4:3-8

"It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; 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. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit."

Note
The Lord God is patient, not wanting anyone to perish. Because he loved his creation so very much, he sent his son Jesus to die on a cross for our sins, past, present and future. But, his grace is not a license to sin. We must deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow him. As the preacher taught today, "set our minds on divine things, not on human things." Love is sacrifice. Jesus paid the ultimate sacrifice: death by crucifixion. But, on the third day, God raised him from the dead. And you can have a new life in Jesus because of his resurrection power. You only need to repent of your sins, and ask him to forgive you, and he will come into your heart and make you a new creation. Jesus changed my life.

Respect Life

God’s word says, “But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts, I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother’s belly” (Psalm 22:9-10).

"Since 1973, over 45 million legal abortions have been performed in the United States.” When the Constitution was signed, it read that the people would have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Our Nation was founded on Christian principles, “One Nation under God.”

God cares about life and he cares about the unborn. Yet, as I did my research on Wikipedia, the biggest reason that people (25.5%) gave for having an abortion is that they wanted to postpone childbearing. And the next biggest reason (21.3%) was that they couldn’t afford a baby.

Isn’t it sad that the baby, who is a human being, a living breathing life, had no choice? The word of God says, “Thou shalt not murder,” but unfortunately a baby in the womb has been reduced to something equivalent to a “blob of cells”“nothingness,” not a baby, with a beating heart.

There is no excuse for taking the life of another human being and God’s word says that he knew our name before we were even conceived. His word is clear. What choice will you make? Make the right one, won’t you? Abort means to “terminate before completion.” An innocent baby has the right to “complete” his life the way God intended it.

Don’t abort an innocent baby. Get a sonogram and see that the baby inside of you is a living, breathing, human being, blessed by God, before they were even conceived. And he is the giver and taker of life, there is no other like him. He brought us into the world and only he can take us out, by the stroke of his mighty hand.

If you are reading this and have had an abortion, you must know that God can forgive an act of abortion, but only through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins.

If you repent and ask Him to forgive you through Jesus Christ, our intercessor, he will. And then you must turn from your sin and live for Jesus, who atoned for your sin when He died on the cross and said, “It is finished.” Say no to abortion. Don’t believe the lie. A baby is a life, even in the womb. Respect life, won’t you?

My Mom

In the year 1969 my sister Lynn grew ill
My mother took over not knowing her will
But my mother was so strong
As she watched over our angel without fear
God love my mother, as she never shed a tear
She worked in our home but was called away
To a hospital where Lynn and other children would stay
And those people how they cherished my mother
For the love she would share
And how she’d listen to all of their despair
Although many years have passed us by and we’ve lost a little one
My mother struggles on, her job still not done
For many will never forget the mom I adore and look up to
Who could ask for more?
She’s taught us the meaning of life at its best
To be thankful to God, letting him take care of the rest
She’s taught us to love because my mom knew best
When our lessons are learned we must go home to rest
How they loved my mother and would really try and understand
Because she simply cared and reached out her hand
She’s the most giving person I’ve ever known
And will always be remembered by those who once felt alone
She gave of herself all the love she had
And never complained, though she may have been sad
My mom’s the greatest, I love her very much
As do many others whose lives she so touched
And now I must close, but want you to know dear mom
How special you are to all of us, each and everyone.

Heartstrings, a collection of poems and stories (chapbook)
Copyright © 2002 by Library of Congress

My Dad, A Tribute

My dad was laid to rest at three
The time Jesus was on the tree
He'll lay next to my sister Lynn
She was an angel, never sinned

It was the year, nineteen hundred, seventy-two
When dad gave the ultimate sacrifice
One of his kidneys so that she might live

So it seems proper at this time
Their graves lie side by side
All is done, in God's time.

Dedicated to my father, Harold Roy Cloutier, Sr
4/4/25-10/19/09

Marriage, in the Beginning

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”
(Gen 1:1).
"Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground'" (Gen 1:26).
“So God created man in his own image in the image of God he created him male and female he created them”
(Gen 1:27).
“God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it'”
(Gen 1:28).
“The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being”
(Gen 2:7).
“The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to alone, I will make a helper suitable for him'”
(Gen 2:18).
“So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh.” "Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man" (Gen 2:21-22).
"The man said, 'This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called "woman," for she was taken out of man'" (Gen 2:23).
“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and they will become one flesh”(Gen 2:24).
"The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame" (Gen 2:25).

The Real Diana

As we celebrate the life and death of Princess Diana in July and August, I wish to share this sentiment. I think of the legacy she left us as seen displayed in the lives of her sons, carrying on, so brave and strong, just like their mother taught them. That, in adversity, true fulfillment comes through serving others. And sometimes, sweet remembrances come from strangers, and are given to us as gifts to carry us through. It seems that this happened on the night of the tragic Paris car crash which took her life, when a complete stranger, a physician, was called to the scene. As seen in a television interview years later, this renowned physician, who was one of the last person's to be the princess, used the few moments he had to leave the world such a gift. I remember his words, as if he just spoke them, still resonating in my mind. Truly this man has wisdom. He said that as he cradled the princess in his arms, she had the most peaceful countenance. What a beautiful image to remember her by and I think of her faith and of angels and then I think of heaven. For those of us who observed her life from a distance, and never knew her on a personal level, she touched our hearts and her life was not in vain.
Heartstrings Two, Copyright © 2008 by Library of Congress

Dear Baby Richard

The day they took you away
from the only mother and father you knew
I wept deep down inside my soul for you
May my tears help make you whole again
For I'm a mother and cannot comprehend
Why your life with your adoptive parents has to come to an end
And why a man you don't even know, took you away
From the only home you've ever known to this day
Baby Richard please find comfort in knowing God will have the last say
When you join him and the angels on that glorious day.
(Written in 1995, after viewing a Documentary on Baby Richard, then, age 4)
Heartstrings, Copyright © 2002 by Library of Congress