Topic(s): Moral Issues

Todd Clippard

I believe the passage in question is 1 Corinthians 6:16, which reads: "Know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh."

Paul is here speaking of the Divine ideal for sexual relations between a man and woman. He is showing how God sanctioned sexual intercourse only within the confines of marriage from the beginning of the creation (Gen 1:26ff; Matthew 19:4-6). The point Paul is trying to make is the importance of sexual purity, and how sexual immorality defiles the body, the soul, and the plan of God.

There are numerous instances where a man and woman committed a sexual sin, yet were not considered married because of it:
Lot and his daughters (Genesis 19:30-38);
Judah and Tamar (the widow of his sons Er and Onan - Genesis 38);
David and Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11-12);
Ammon and his half-sister Tamar (2 Samuel 13).

Also, when a man and woman marry, they become one flesh (Genesis 2:23-24). If this man later joins himself to a harlot, does this also join his wife to the harlot? Definitely not!