your response to a girl who lives with her boyfriend and she asked why you called it a sin<\/a>. You gave her reasons, but then you listed reasons for her to consider. The second heading was “It Can Keep You Out of Heaven.”\u00a0 If you are preaching the truth as you say, you should have told her that if she has accepted Christ as her Savior and believes he died for our sins and was raised again, she’d be forgiven.<\/p>\n\tAnswer:<\/h2>\n
The question being addressed was why fornication is called a sin. The young woman also made it clear that she saw no reason for getting married. Therefore, I addressed the question of why living together without marriage is a sin.<\/p>\n
All sins can be forgiven, but your answer is not nearly complete. For example, your answer implies that she could remain in her sin, continue to commit fornication, and be forgiven. This is not what Jesus taught. “I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish<\/em>” (Luke 13:3). Turning away from sin (repentance) is absolutely critical to receiving forgiveness of sin. Peter also stated the same. “Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit<\/em>” (Acts 2:38).<\/p>\nPeter brings up another point that you left out. God has never taught that salvation is by just faith alone as you imply. In fact, God teaches the opposite. “You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only<\/em>” (James 2:24). Actions must match the faith, else the faith is dead. One must have faith in Jesus and his death for our sins. So what action does God require to match that faith? “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin<\/em>” (Romans 6:3-7).<\/p>\nThe woman who wrote needed to be convicted of the fact that she was living in sin. Only then would she be willing to repent of those sins and seek forgiveness. If she had responded, I would have continued with what she needed to do to gain forgiveness. As it stood, she didn’t believe she was in sin and thus believed she had no need for forgiveness.<\/p>\n
On your part, you need to start teaching the full gospel of God instead of telling people that God accepts people who remain in their sins and refuse to obey His commands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: I just read over\u00a0your response to a girl who lives with her boyfriend and she asked why you called it a sin. You gave her reasons, but then you listed reasons for her to consider. The second heading was “It Can Keep You Out of Heaven.”\u00a0 If you are preaching the truth as you…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[1571,1572,47],"class_list":["post-23588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-forgiveness","tag-fornication","tag-salvation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":50000,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-should-be-done-about-a-woman-who-repeatedly-has-children-by-different-men\/","url_meta":{"origin":23588,"position":0},"title":"What should be done about a woman who repeatedly has children by different men?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 27, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Here is the situation: 4 years ago a member of our church got pregnant by her boyfriend and had a baby. She came forward and repented of her sins. 3 years ago the same member got pregnant by a different boyfriend and had a baby. She again came forward\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38876,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/my-girlfriend-just-told-me-she-had-sex-with-her-ex-boyfriend-what-do-i-do\/","url_meta":{"origin":23588,"position":1},"title":"My girlfriend just told me she had sex with her ex-boyfriend. What do I do?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 21, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am 20, and I am dating a girl since I went to college. She is also 20 now. Two days ago she confessed to me that she lost her virginity over five years ago with her ex-boyfriend. She had sex many times with him but said that she\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20143,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-we-refuse-to-study-with-someone-who-is-in-an-adulterous-marriage\/","url_meta":{"origin":23588,"position":2},"title":"Should we refuse to study with someone who is in an adulterous marriage?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 12, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My question is this: When studying with someone who is not in the Lord and they have remarried and their first marriage was ended and not for fornication or death; is it right to refuse that person study unless they leave their present husband since their first marriage wasn't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":44753,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-got-a-girl-pregnant-have-i-ruined-my-career-as-a-preacher\/","url_meta":{"origin":23588,"position":3},"title":"I got a girl pregnant. Have I ruined my career as a preacher?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 22, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have been seeking counseling over an issue, but I realized that the counselor was euphemizing the ignominy of my action. Recently, my pastor advised me to consider marriage. Prior to giving me this advice, I messed up and impregnated a girl. I have been supporting her secretively, not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":89588,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-you-have-material-on-restoring-young-people-who-had-committed-fornication\/","url_meta":{"origin":23588,"position":4},"title":"Do you have material on restoring young people who had committed fornication?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 20, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day, I am looking for resources to restore young people who have fallen into the sin of fornication. Do you have any lessons? Do you know of any books or pages? Thanks a lot! Answer: There is a ton of material on the topic of fornication on this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40883,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-committed-fornication-but-i-am-determined-not-to-do-so-again-why-do-i-not-feel-forgiven\/","url_meta":{"origin":23588,"position":5},"title":"I committed fornication, but I am determined not to do so again. Why do I not feel forgiven?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 9, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I read your answer to a lady on God forgiving fornication. My story is similar to hers, but I lost my virginity. My parents are not the strong Christian type, but I had high standards for myself. I never had a boyfriend until I was 21 years old. My\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23588\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}