Most of the time when I read the Bible, I read the New International Version (NIV). Unfortunately, the NIV doesn’t do justice to the subject of premarital sex. I believe the main problem to be the “loosening” of terminology. In the King James Version, the word fornication is used 36 times in 32 different verses. In the New International Version, the word fornication doesn’t appear. Instead it has been replaced by the phrase “sexual immorality.” My personal belief is that the phrase sexual immorality is vague and the word fornication should have been used instead. For anyone that doesn’t know, the definition for the word fornication is sexual intercourse between a man and woman not married to each other. The verses I go to most often when talking about premarital sex are 1 Corinthians 6:15-20. I’ve given them below in both the KJV and the NIV so that you could see and read the distinctions between the two versions. Please note that the Lord makes a distinction that “All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.” Because the body is a temple for the Holy Spirit, this sin should be guarded against vigilantly.
1 Corinthians 6:15-20 (KJV)
Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
1 Corinthians 6:15-20 (NIV)
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, "The two will become one flesh." But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit. Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
Matthew 19:9 (KJV)
And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.
Jude 1:7 (KJV)
Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
