Answering 439 Bible Contradictions
Answer: Yes, all immorality—including sexual activity outside of marriage—is sinful.
Problem: The Ten Commandments condemn adultery in every form, while some Old Testament passages seem to encourage immoral unions, such as God commanding Hosea to marry a prostitute.
Explanation: The author of Hebrews calls for purity in marriage, insisting it be “held in honor” (13:4). God “will judge sexual immorality”, which is sexual impurity while unmarried, and “adulterous” activity, which is unfaithfulness to a spouse. Jesus extends adultery to lust (Mt. 5:18).
It is possible for Christians to commit these sins, as King David—a man after God’s own heart—committed adultery with Bathsheba (2Sm. 11). God will punish believers that engage in immorality, as he “disciplines the ones he loves” (Hb. 12:6), though sinners that continually engage in unrepentant sexual immorality prove they were never truly converted and will not inherit the kingdom of heaven (1Cor. 6:9).
In the Old Testament, the Seventh Commandment says “you shall not commit adultery”, a broad prohibition against all sexual immorality (Ex. 20:14; Dt. 5:18). According to Answer 139 of the Westminster Larger Catechism, the sins forbidden in the Seventh Commandment include adultery, fornication, rape, incest, sodomy, lust, filthy talk, immodest clothing, unnecessary delay of marriage, unlawful marriages, polygamy, and unjust divorce. Scripture also condemns interfaith marriage, meaning believers must marry believers (1Cor. 7:39; 2Cor. 6:14).
Scripture never commends immorality by condoning unjust marriages, though two examples imply this. In Numbers 31, God commands Israel to wipe out the Midianites because they had seduced them into worshipping false gods. They could only spare young virgin girls so that the Israelite men may one day take them in marriage. Since these ladies were so young and had not participated in the Midianite idolatry, it is assumed that upon marriage they would have embraced Israel’s God. This would make it a lawful marital bond because it came within the community of faith.
In Hosea, it appears that God commands the prophet to marry a prostitute. “The Lord said to Hosea, ‘Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom’” (Hosea 1:2). If so, this would constitute an unlawful, immoral marriage. A closer look at the context shows three reasons why Hosea’s wife Gomer only became unfaithful after their marriage.
First, Gomer becoming promiscuous after marriage best pictures the purpose of the book. Hosea is written to illustrate Israel’s spiritual adultery against God and His willingness to take them back. Gomer was a “woman of whoredom” because that is what she would become in the future. If she was already promiscuous, this wouldn’t fit the picture of Israel’s deliverance out of Egypt, when only later she chose to turn away from God (Ex. 11:1).
Second, Gomer’s children indicate she was faithful in the beginning. Her first child Jezreel is called a son of Hosea (1:3). But her next daughter and son are called “her children” only, meaning Hosea was not the father. The daughter was named “No Mercy” (1:6), meaning Hosea would not deal tenderly with her as he would his own child. She named her son “Not My People” (1:9), stating explicitly that Hosea was not the father. The last two were “children of whoredom” (2:4), meaning unfaithfulness came later.
Third, Hosea took back Gomer after rejecting her, an abandonment which would not have been just if the prophet had knowingly married a harlot. Though Scripture allows divorce based on immorality (Mt. 5:32), marital love toward an unfaithful spouse is not sinful but pictures God’s compassion toward unfaithful sinners.
Conclusion
Scripture never commends adultery. It is always sinful. Hosea’s marriage to Gomer was not an immoral, unlawful act because she became unfaithful only after marriage, nor was taking her back sinful, as Scripture never condemns this and at times even encourages it.