What Jehovah’s Witnesses teach
Jehovah’s Witnesses place great emphasis on the term porneía, the Greek word that is often translated “sexual immorality” in their Bible translation, the New World Translation. They define porneía as any sexual act between people who are not legally married to each other.
The organization specifies that porneía is not only regular vaginal intercourse, but also includes other genital stimulation between people who are not spouses. This means that acts such as mutual masturbation between two people, touching genitals and the like, can also fall under the category of sexual immorality if it occurs between unmarried people or between people out of wedlock.
They also make a distinction between sexual fantasies (which are considered impure thoughts) and physical action, although gross sexual fantasies are also seen as sinful and grounds for church action if it is a persistent practice.
Sexual immorality as defined by Jehovah’s Witnesses can lead to disfellowshipping if the act does not cease and the elders believe that the sinner is unrepentant.
What the Bible says
The Bible does not explicitly say that two people that are not married, cannot touch each other’s genitals. Such an understanding seems to have its origin in a general perception rather than a Biblical teaching.
The Bible does not give a blanket prohibition against sexual fantasies, nor does it describe every sexual thought as an act of sexual immorality. It acknowledges that people experience desire and temptation (1 Corinthians 7:9; James 1:14–15), while warning against deliberately planning for wrongful desire (Proverbs 6:25). Romans 13:11–14 say the reason for this is that we should not have time to plan according to the time we live in. Even when a married person deliberately cultivates desire for another woman, Jesus calls it adultery “in his heart” (Matthew 5:27–28). Paul describes an actual sexual encounter as a bodily union (1 Corinthians 6:16). The Bible thus distinguishes adultery in the heart from a physically committed act of adultery and does not say that they are identical acts or carry identical consequences.
We will start here from what the Bible says to Christians, and we have excluded the verses that apply to commands to the Israelites in line with Romans 10:4 and Galatians 3:24,25, which confirm that the Mosaic Law was abolished when Jesus gave new commandments to Christians.
Adultery is condemned in the Bible (Hebrews 13:4). The Bible distinguishes between actual adultery and adultery in mind (Matthew 5:27,28). The Bible does not elaborate on exactly what adultery is for Christians. It is important to be aware that the Bible distinguishes between sexual immorality as a separate concept (porneia) and adultery (moicheia). Committing sexual immorality applies to everyone, but adultery presupposes that the person is married.
The Bible describes immorality for Christians as:
Homosexual acts
Romans 1:26,27: “… men gave up the natural intercourse with women and were inflamed by sexual desire towards each other, men performed shameful acts with men …”. Under the Mosaic Law in Leviticus 18:22, there was a similar vision: “You must not lie with a man as one lies with a woman. It’s something abominable.”
Sex with her stepmother
In 1 Corinthians 5:1, a sexual relationship between a man and his father’s wife is described as scandalous.
Sexual relations with a prostitute
Some accounts in the Hebrew Scriptures describe encounters with prostitutes without expressly passing judgment on each encounter. Samson went in to a prostitute in Gaza and stayed there until midnight (Judges 16:1–3). Jephthah was the son of Gilead and a prostitute (Judges 11:1). Judah had relations with Tamar because he believed she was a prostitute (Genesis 38:15–18, 23–26). Paul do mention that sexual encounter with an prostitute will make them into “one body,” which will make then Biblical husband and wife (1 Corinthians 6:15–18). See the article Registration Of Marriage And Divorce to get the context of how marriage is established according to the Bible.
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