While all forms of sin will separate us from God, when it comes to sexual sin, there is a difference. Paul wrote, “Run away from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does” (I Corinthians 6:18). 

The next time someone tells you that sexual sin is no different than all the other sins listed in a biblical list of sins, you will realize the person speaking to you does not yet understand the deeper consequence involving sexual sin. 

Sexual sin joins us to the other party in a spiritual and emotional union not common to other sins. It has a very different effect than being a gossip or someone who sneaks another cookie out of the cookie jar and carries the evidence of the sin of gluttony around their waist, or when we slip something into our coat pocket when no one is watching and walk out of a store without paying. 

Paul noted in the same chapter, “Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ?” (vs. 15) and “Don’t you realize your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who lives in you and was given to you by God?” (vs.19). We fail to realize the deeper impact of sexual sin when we do not understand its unique ability, above all other sins, to destroy our relationship with God and hurt those we are called to love with the singularity of pure devotion.

“You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So, you must honor God with your body” (vs. 19-20).  To contend for sexual purity must be motivated by the desire to honor God and those who would be painfully impacted by our sin.  Without that honor, anything goes, even the attempts to dilute the impact of sexual sin.