Sex outside of marriage, called adultery if either partner is married and fornication if they are not, cannot fulfill God's ideal, for it lacks the context of pledged fidelity. The word eventually came to mean the mixing of base practices with pure practices. To make sex the integration point for one's life, and to seek fulfillment in a way that is contrary to God's best for us is to take that which has been created for one purpose and use it for a very different thing. Think of someone wanting to warm himself in front of a fire coming along and chopping up all that precious oak, walnut, cherry, mahogany, and making a fire as he sits and eats by the blaze. Or let's change metaphors and extend this image of a fire.
Sex is like fire in a fireplace.
Fire is a wonderful gift of God for warming oneself, for cooking, for creating a romantic atmosphere. That is the way it is with sex, too. God intended sex for marriage, for the fireplace, and whenever we take it out of its intended context, it has the potential to destroy our whole lives. I want to read you a portion of a letter that I received from a woman in our church some time ago. She has given me permission to read this aloud.