Note: It’s a lot! But really a lot less rules than religion.

Hebrews 13:4 ESV / 1,206 helpful votes 

Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

Genesis 2:24 ESV / 1,066 helpful votes 

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

1 Corinthians 7:3-5 ESV / 954 helpful votes 

The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

Genesis 1:28 ESV / 932 helpful votes 

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

1 Corinthians 6:18 ESV / 852 helpful votes 

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

1 Corinthians 7:2 ESV / 765 helpful votes 

But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.

Proverbs 5:18-19 ESV / 652 helpful votes 

Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love.

Song of Solomon 8:4 ESV / 636 helpful votes 

I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases.

Matthew 5:28 ESV / 610 helpful votes 

But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 ESV / 549 helpful votes 

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God;

1 Corinthians 7:5 ESV / 443 helpful votes 

Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

1 Corinthians 6:18-20 ESV / 427 helpful votes 

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Song of Solomon 7:6-13 ESV / 423 helpful votes 

How beautiful and pleasant you are, O loved one, with all your delights! Your stature is like a palm tree, and your breasts are like its clusters. I say I will climb the palm tree and lay hold of its fruit. Oh may your breasts be like clusters of the vine, and the scent of your breath like apples, and your mouth like the best wine. It goes down smoothly for my beloved, gliding over lips and teeth. I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for me. …

Song of Solomon 4:16 ESV / 410 helpful votes 

Awake, O north wind, and come, O south wind! Blow upon my garden, let its spices flow. Let my beloved come to his garden, and eat its choicest fruits.

Song of Solomon 8:14 ESV / 407 helpful votes 

Make haste, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices.

Song of Solomon 2:16-17 ESV / 399 helpful votes 

My beloved is mine, and I am his; he grazes among the lilies. Until the day breathes and the shadows flee, turn, my beloved, be like a gazelle or a young stag on cleft mountains.

Colossians 3:5 ESV / 349 helpful votes 

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

Exodus 20:14 ESV / 331 helpful votes 

“You shall not commit adultery.

Ephesians 5:3 ESV / 266 helpful votes 

But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 ESV / 266 helpful votes 

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

1 Corinthians 6:13 ESV / 261 helpful votes 

“Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

Proverbs 6:32 ESV / 257 helpful votes 

He who commits adultery lacks sense; he who does it destroys himself.

Genesis 39:7-10 ESV / 256 helpful votes 

And after a time his master’s wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, “Lie with me.” But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge. He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie beside her or to be with her.

Galatians 5:19-21 ESV / 236 helpful votes 

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Leviticus 18:22 ESV / 215 helpful votes 

You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.

Leviticus 20:13 ESV / 200 helpful votes 

If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.

Romans 13:13-14 ESV / 196 helpful votes 

Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

1 Corinthians 7:1-2 ESV / 177 helpful votes 

Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.

Galatians 5:19 ESV / 162 helpful votes 

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,

1 Corinthians 6:9 ESV / 139 helpful votes 

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,

1 Thessalonians 4:3 ESV / 137 helpful votes 

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality;

2 Timothy 2:22 ESV / 136 helpful votes 

So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

Romans 1:26-27 ESV / 136 helpful votes 

For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

Genesis 9:1 ESV / 123 helpful votes 

And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

1 Timothy 1:10 ESV / 122 helpful votes 

The sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine,

Jude 1:7 ESV / 120 helpful votes 

Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

Mark 7:20-23 ESV / 120 helpful votes 

And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

1 Corinthians 7:9 ESV / 114 helpful votes 

But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

Genesis 2:25 ESV / 113 helpful votes 

And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

1 Corinthians 7:1-40 ESV / 112 helpful votes 

Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. …

Job 31:1 ESV / 102 helpful votes 

“I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin?

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 ESV / 97 helpful votes 

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Genesis 1:27 ESV / 95 helpful votes 

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Proverbs 5:19 ESV / 94 helpful votes 

A lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love.

1 Thessalonians 4:7 ESV / 92 helpful votes 

For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.

1 Corinthians 6:12-20 ESV / 90 helpful votes 

“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” …

1 Peter 2:11 ESV / 85 helpful votes 

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.

Proverbs 5:15-19 ESV / 84 helpful votes 

Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well. Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets? Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you. Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love.

1 John 2:15-16 ESV / 80 helpful votes 

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.

Romans 1:24-27 ESV / 79 helpful votes 

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

1 Thessalonians 4:4 ESV / 74 helpful votes 

That each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor,

2 Corinthians 12:21 ESV / 74 helpful votes 

I fear that when I come again my God may humble me before you, and I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, and sensuality that they have practiced.

1 John 1:9 ESV / 70 helpful votes 

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Titus 2:12 ESV / 68 helpful votes 

Training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,

1 Corinthians 7:8-9 ESV / 66 helpful votes 

To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single, as I am. But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

1 Corinthians 7:3 ESV / 66 helpful votes 

The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband.

Exodus 22:19 ESV / 64 helpful votes 

“Whoever lies with an animal shall be put to death.

Romans 1:27 ESV / 62 helpful votes 

And the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

Genesis 1:27-28 ESV / 62 helpful votes 

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

1 Corinthians 5:1 ESV / 61 helpful votes 

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife.

1 Corinthians 6:11 ESV / 58 helpful votes 

And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Mark 10:6-9 ESV / 58 helpful votes 

But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Revelation 21:8 ESV / 57 helpful votes 

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

1 Corinthians 10:8 ESV / 57 helpful votes 

We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day.

Ephesians 5:25 ESV / 51 helpful votes 

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,

Romans 13:9 ESV / 49 helpful votes 

For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Romans 1:26 ESV / 49 helpful votes 

For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature;

Genesis 4:1 ESV / 48 helpful votes 

Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.”

Leviticus 18:23 ESV / 47 helpful votes 

And you shall not lie with any animal and so make yourself unclean with it, neither shall any woman give herself to an animal to lie with it: it is perversion.

Matthew 5:27-30 ESV / 46 helpful votes 

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

1 Thessalonians 4:3-4 ESV / 44 helpful votes 

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor,

1 Corinthians 7:1 ESV / 44 helpful votes 

Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.”

Song of Solomon 1:2 ESV / 44 helpful votes 

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine;

Song of Solomon 1:1-17 ESV / 42 helpful votes 

The Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine; your anointing oils are fragrant; your name is oil poured out; therefore virgins love you. Draw me after you; let us run. The king has brought me into his chambers. We will exult and rejoice in you; we will extol your love more than wine; rightly do they love you. I am very dark, but lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon. …

Acts 15:29 ESV / 41 helpful votes 

That you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”

1 Corinthians 6:16 ESV / 40 helpful votes 

Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.”

Genesis 29:23 ESV / 38 helpful votes 

But in the evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and he went in to her.

Matthew 15:19-20 ESV / 35 helpful votes 

For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”

Exodus 22:16 ESV / 35 helpful votes 

“If a man seduces a virgin who is not betrothed and lies with her, he shall give the bride-price for her and make her his wife.

1 Corinthians 6:19 ESV / 33 helpful votes 

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,

Song of Solomon 7:7 ESV / 33 helpful votes 

Your stature is like a palm tree, and your breasts are like its clusters.

Song of Solomon 7:6-12 ESV / 33 helpful votes 

How beautiful and pleasant you are, O loved one, with all your delights! Your stature is like a palm tree, and your breasts are like its clusters. I say I will climb the palm tree and lay hold of its fruit. Oh may your breasts be like clusters of the vine, and the scent of your breath like apples, and your mouth like the best wine. It goes down smoothly for my beloved, gliding over lips and teeth. I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for me. …

Song of Solomon 4:13-16 ESV / 33 helpful votes 

Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates with all choicest fruits, henna with nard, nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes, with all choice spices— a garden fountain, a well of living water, and flowing streams from Lebanon. Awake, O north wind, and come, O south wind! Blow upon my garden, let its spices flow. Let my beloved come to his garden, and eat its choicest fruits.

1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV / 32 helpful votes 

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

Genesis 4:17 ESV / 32 helpful votes 

Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. When he built a city, he called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch.

Genesis 2:24-25 ESV / 32 helpful votes 

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Titus 1:15 ESV / 31 helpful votes 

To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled.

1 Kings 15:12 ESV / 31 helpful votes 

He put away the male cult prostitutes out of the land and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.

1 Thessalonians 4:3-7 ESV / 30 helpful votes 

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.

Galatians 6:1-18 ESV / 30 helpful votes 

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load. …

2 Kings 23:7 ESV / 30 helpful votes 

And he broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes who were in the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the Asherah.

Genesis 4:25 ESV / 30 helpful votes 

And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.”

Ephesians 5:33 ESV / 29 helpful votes 

However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

Deuteronomy 24:5 ESV / 29 helpful votes 

“When a man is newly married, he shall not go out with the army or be liable for any other public duty. He shall be free at home one year to be happy with his wife whom he has taken.

Ecclesiastes 4:11 ESV / 27 helpful votes 

Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone?

1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 ESV / 26 helpful votes 

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. …

Romans 12:1-21 ESV / 26 helpful votes 

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. …

Proverbs 31:2-3 ESV / 26 helpful votes 

What are you doing, my son? What are you doing, son of my womb? What are you doing, son of my vows? Do not give your strength to women, your ways to those who destroy kings.

Deuteronomy 22:13-21 ESV / 24 helpful votes 

“If any man takes a wife and goes in to her and then hates her and accuses her of misconduct and brings a bad name upon her, saying, ‘I took this woman, and when I came near her, I did not find in her evidence of virginity,’ then the father of the young woman and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of her virginity to the elders of the city in the gate. And the father of the young woman shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man to marry, and he hates her; and behold, he has accused her of misconduct, saying, “I did not find in your daughter evidence of virginity.” And yet this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they shall spread the cloak before the elders of the city. …

Genesis 38:8-9 ESV / 24 helpful votes 

Then Judah said to Onan, “Go in to your brother’s wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother.” But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his. So whenever he went in to his brother’s wife he would waste the semen on the ground, so as not to give offspring to his brother.