Physical Acts are Never Sinful

[Paul33]

blackbird,

You cited excellent verses that address this issue.

Thanks.

Yes, The Bible teaches that the "physical" act of sex with someone not one's spouse is sin, in and of itself.

 

[Paul33]

craigbythesea,

Where are you? Do you have anything to add? I think blackbird nailed it.

To others,

I agree, I don't know that the heart/behavior connection can be severed. But if it can, 1 Cor. 6:15 addresses it.

The physical act of adultery is a sin, and so is the desire of the heart that prompts one to commit adultery. Both are sins, in any combination!

 

[Petrel]

I believe you fellas need to read a little more than just surface thoughts---your minds are being deceived when you say that you cannot sin with your body when your mind is not involved.

Not true. In that case a married woman who is drugged and raped is guilty of adultery. We've clearly already shown that a physical act may be sinful in some situations and not sinful in others based upon the mental status of the person involved.

I think we need to clarify a bit. I realized that when I am talking about motive and intent I am thinking of more than just the simple immediate motive, but all of the various motivations and factors related to the decision--the whole train of thought. Additionally, I'm sure all of us believe in moral absolutes, so we will agree that simply because a person does not believe than an act is wrong does not mean it is not wrong (answering a question on the previous page). Therefore even if a man decides to go out and hire a prostitute, not believing this is wrong, he is still sinning. However, the sin comes from a wrong worldview, so it is still internal.

It has also been said that if you commit a sin in your heart, you might as well go out and commit it physically. This makes no sense because it means committing the same sin again. Additionally, a sin committed solely in the mind does not have the same consequences as one committed physically. Obviously it is possible for me to be guilty of the same person's murder in my mind twenty different times. However, due to the act's real-world consequences this murder can only be enacted physically once.

 

[Paul33]

Granted.

But I'm trying to isolate just one physical act that is in and of itself sinful.

 

[Johnv]

Originally posted by Paul33:
I choose to alleviate or satisfy these desires by having sex with a woman not my wife.

That's called fornication, which is a sin in scripture.

I just need to satisfy a physical need which is normal and healthy with a physical act of intercourse.

SO if you were married, and your wife became physically incapacitated, would it be permissible to have extramarital sex? After all, it's just to "satisfy a physical need which is normal and healthy".

We even hear those who think like this say, "It didn't mean anything! It was just sex."

There's no such thing. Sure, people can convince themselves of it, but there's no such thing.

 

[Marcia]

Willingly having intitmate relations outside of marriage, for whatever reason, is sin and is forbidden by God.

 

[Petrel]

Originally posted by Paul33:
Granted.

But I'm trying to isolate just one physical act that is in and of itself sinful.

I don't think there is one. A physical act can only be sinful if it is committed by a free moral agent. In the absence of the actor's mind and its capability to reason about right and wrong, a physical action carries no moral significance.

Johnv, that was a hypothetical situation, he's not seriously proposing that.

 

[Johnv]

Oh, now you tell me. I think I need to take a Sarcasm and Hytheticals course at my local community college. Clearly, my ability to identify these things is lacking

 

[Petrel]

Hey, if it were most other sites out there it most likely would have been a perfectly serious proposition!

 

[rbell]

Why should we be dividing mind and body? I'm not sure I understand the relevance to the argument.

Ezekiel 18:4 -- "Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die."

Do a word study of "soul," (hebrew: "nephesh"). I think it will shed an interesting light on this discussion--primarily that this argument is not worth having. Sin cannot be compartmentalized or separated into one part of our being.

Or then again, maybe the muscle relaxer I took just made me think an actual grown-up thought for a second.

 

[Paul33]

rbell,

I'm not sure mind/body can be separated either.

But taking Jesus' sermon on the mount as a jumping off point, I would like to argue against craigbythesea by pointing out that if I am not lusting after another woman, but I have sex with her anyway, a purely "physical" act, Jesus would still condemn that as sin.

 

[Paul33]

The act is sinful, but so is the desire to commit the act even if I don't carry it out.