Fornication Within Marriage

Many people have a mistaken belief that fornication is having sexual relations outside of marriage. As my articles have shown, this concept is flawed. Sexual intimacy is always one of two things. Either it is a relationship between a husband and wife known as marriage, or it is adultery. 

A common idea that these casual relationships outside the marriage covenant are less serious sins. But any sexual relation that exists outside the laws of chastity are adulterous, and carry the same consequences. The reasons for this is not that God looks upon one sin as serious and another not so serious, but rather that the eternal laws of justice and natural consequences are always in effect. Either we are treating our relationships in a manner where they are solemn, sacred bonds or we are treating sexuality and the physical sensations as a form of entertainment. 

Fornication in its broader definition refers to this unclean state, an impurity pertaining to the marriage. It is a state in which the bond between the man and woman is broken. In other words, fornication is not exclusive to the act of committing sexual activities outside the marriage covenant, but rather the act of violating the marriage covenant through an act of uncleaness. 

So what is this uncleaness?  Well, fornication is more or less, the act of putting sexual pleasures ahead of genuine intimacy. It is the act of indulging in carnal pleasures, often including birth control measures, pornography, performance enhancements, etc. it also includes refraining from intimacy for a variety of reasons, including but not exclusive to: masturbation and fantasies, punishment, etc. These things weaken the true relationship and turn a marriage into a drudgery. It's like covering a white wedding dress in manure. It converts the sacred bonds of matrimony into whoredom. 

Now for a couple scriptural references as an example:

“And in the second year of this week in this jubilee, Rebecca called Jacob her son, and spake unto him, saying: "My son, do not take thee a wife of the daughters of Canaan, as Esau, thy brother, who took “him two wives of the daughters of Canaan, and they have embittered my soul with all their unclean deeds: for all their deeds are fornication and lust, and there is no righteousness with them, for (their deeds) are evil." Book of Jubilees 25:1

"And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother’s wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother.  And the thing which he did displeased the Lord" Genesis 38:9-10

See also 1st Corinthians chapter 5