SO WHY IS FORNICATION A SIN?
Of all Philosophical analyses I have made in my mind, I think I’ve wondered this question the most. I’ve come up with logical and convincing answers to such questions as ‘does ‘God exist’? But for long the immorality of a sexual relation between two consenting but unmarried adults remained a puzzle to me, until the morning of 10th December 2012.

The usual story of ‘the manufacturer has a user’s manual within which parameters the product can be optimized’, had not helped me that much. So on the 10th of December, while on a project in Enugu State and it happened that I did not go to work, the Lord led me to a football pitch where a football team was having a training session. I had initially only stopped by to watch skills-display in one of my favourite games, but instead, I found my mind asking bizarre questions.

Why did all of them have to run laps round the pitch first, and together, whether or not some have done some running earlier?

During play, why did they have to restrict the ball to within a certain area?

Why are off-side goals cancelled?

Why is hand contact with the ball punished?

Why time the play instead of just playing until whoever gets tired leaves the pitch?

Why can’t everybody just behave the way he feels like, as long as the ball can be put through the opponent’s posts?

Why does every sport have rules that must not be contravened? Thinking about this question would logically pop another - why are sports and games invented in the first place? Because if the reason for sports and games is worthless, I am positive that men and women would not humble themselves to such humiliation of having to abide by some strength sucking rules.

LIKE SPORTS, LIKE LIFE
Every established sport, especially those recognized in the Olympics, is fashioned around imbibing a culture of discipline in people. Rules in sports are for this reason, discipline. Contravening these rules attracts punishment of relative severity. Sports are fashioned life-like, and whereas life is a journey (which is generally non-competitive), sports are for games (full of competition). Sports and life have one thing in common - reward for success. Success is attained by achieving goals, and Reward is a substantial present for the feat.

Therefore, the purpose of Sports - which are temporary activities, is to keep people braced with the purpose of a more permanent activity - Life. It is no surprise then that discipline is the watch word in sports, because in life journey, discipline is that all-important thing you need to succeed, and be rewarded. Worthy of note here is that not every seeming success in life is true success; just as a goal scored in football with the hand or from an off side player position can first appear to be a goal (success) but would be cancelled. Goal not awarded: effort not rewarded: effort and time wasted: regret. So it is in life, every success (goal scored) borne in indiscipline is definitely bound to crash. No reward. Now I leave you to think of all manner of indiscipline that people engage in, just to get money.

Is our subject fornication? Yes. So let’s roll. Having understood rules and discipline, we just get this in no time. Fornication is a sexual activity. Sex is a reward like nothing else that can ever be achieved or gotten in this life. It is second to salvation only, which here I am assuming you already have, and which on the other hand, is free. That is, it is not a result of any feat, no; not like sports. You may want to ask why or how sex is not free, or whether it is in fact not free. I am not thinking or wondering whether sex is free or not, I know it is not. Sex is earned. It is clearly logical, from our very behaviours and treatment of sex. Unlike salvation, we get jealous over sex. We feel we reserve rights over our spouses. In sex, two different bodies are sacredly and mysteriously united. Our unclothedness that would otherwise bring shame is exposed because of love, trust, care, pride and of course, duty.

Sex is the only avenue for procreation. Therefore, it makes sense that it is permitted where procreation is ideal – the family. Is procreation done outside family? No. Is there family without marriage? No. Family is the nucleus of every community, and so every community upholds and promotes family. Any position contrary to this is from the opposer (Satan), the devil. Satan’s agents are so everywhere these days - Entertainment Industry, Government, Corporate Businesses, False Churches & Religions, Military, Police, etc. So my point is this: marriage/family is the goal that must be scored successfully before sex can be presented as reward. The road to marriage is a life journey (not a game) that must be travelled with much discipline. Fornication is a display of indiscipline and must be punished; otherwise life would be a failure for all. Athletes have been stripped of Olympics medals after years of deceitfully earning them. This punishment must be given; otherwise the Olympics would be a failure.

God hates the way we hurt ourselves out of ignorance. This is because we are too precious to Him. Fornication hurts us, not God. God only gets hurt when we are hurt - no matter the cause of our pain - fornication or not. This is because He loves. The reason we feel pain when our loved ones get hurt is that we are created in the image (character) of God, and He feels pains for His loved ones.

Fornication is sin first against our own bodies – 1 Corinthians 6:18. It diminishes our integrity, image, character and everything about us. We lose our respect from others. We are devalued, and yet we are the image of God. How would God feel? I mean, how do even earthly parents feel when their children (especially looking everything like them) are prostitutes or criminals?

Anybody can argue all he wants, but there is no one who does not appreciate virginity. Every honest person has respect for a virgin, male or female. And no body wants to remain a virgin after marriage. So it’s not as if virgins are allergic to sex, no. They just have a high sense of value for themselves. You see marrying a virgin is not so much about wanting to be the first to have sex with them, than it is about wanting to have a spouse full of self-worth and integrity, and being at peace about issues of fidelity when you are absent for a little while. Now, I am stressing ‘a little while’ because I personally consider it a sin to be absent from your spouse for a long while. Friends, no care of this life is worth that. These are life’s simple and straight-forward rules. Violating them comes only from a habit of indiscipline or ignorance. Many of us have violated this rule and many other life’s rules, putting our future & reward in jeopardy. Our leeway is humility to accept our faults, and repentance from such. Stonewalling only adds to our misery and we know it.

What do we do? We should desire marriage with utmostness. We should address our taste buds as regards ‘wants’ of this life, and desire timely and modest marriage much more than luxery. We should work harder towards achieving our goal of marriage. If you are one of those who think that marriage is a matter of choice than necessity, please read my Thoughts (article)on ‘Sex and Marriage’. Family is society oriented, it is society focused. Understanding the characteristics and dynamism of society and community can help us pursue family life with a noble mind, and with a sense of urgency. [Watch out for my thoughts on ‘SOCIETY AND COMMUNITY’.]

Take care, and God bless you real good. In case you are trapped in this indiscipline and need a way out, do yourself good by seeking help. It’s never by our power nor our might; it’s always by the Spirit of God.
Austin Lohvang Nimmyel
coachnimmyel@gmail.com, lohvang4@yahoo.com, +234 (0)803 621 6402.

i do not think you should have written the long epistle it will simply discourage anyone from reading it like it did me.
I support abstainance. But my support for abstainance is based on the widely held societal values which do not have a strong base to stand the most aggressive of logical arguements.

Truth is, procreation can be done outside of marriage and the offsprings can sometimes be more balanced socially than those of a married couple. Another thing is, people can have sex today and that sex will not lead to procreation tanks to contraceptives.

When you consider all that i have put up there, then you will see that you arguements do not hold water