What does the Bible say about making out?

Bible Topic · WEB

The Bible teaches that physical affection should be governed by holiness, self-control, and honor for God and one another, with sexual intimacy reserved for marriage. Scripture calls believers to flee sexual immorality and avoid arousing desires they are not free to fulfill rightly. First Thessalonians 4:3-5 urges self-control rather than passionate lust, while 2 Timothy 2:22 calls Christians to flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness. Jesus teaches in Matthew 5:27-28 that lustful intent matters before God, not merely outward acts. Hebrews 13:4 honors marriage as the proper covenant setting for sexual union. Therefore, unmarried couples should exercise wisdom and restraint, seeking affection that strengthens purity, love, and obedience rather than temptation.

Top passages, ranked by readers

Rankings: OpenBible.info Topical Bible (CC BY) · Scripture: World English Bible

  • 1 Corinthians 6:18 9 votes

    Flee sexual immorality! “Every sin that a man does is outside the body,” but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.

  • 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 8 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 sanctification and honor, not in the passion of lust, even as the Gentiles who don’t know God,

  • 2 Timothy 2:22 8 votes

    Flee from youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

  • Ephesians 5:3 8 votes

    But sexual immorality, and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be mentioned among you, as becomes saints;

  • Hebrews 13:4 6 votes

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

  • 1 Corinthians 7:2 6 votes

    But, because of sexual immoralities, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.

  • Matthew 5:27-28 4 votes

    “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery;’ but I tell you that everyone who gazes at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.

  • Galatians 5:19-21 4 votes

    Now the deeds of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, rivalries, divisions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these; of which I forewarn you, even as I also forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit God’s Kingdom.

  • Song of Solomon 2:7 4 votes

    I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, or by the hinds of the field, that you not stir up, nor awaken love, until it so desires.

  • Colossians 3:5 3 votes

    Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

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