Is Sexting, Cybersex and Phone Sex a Sin?

Sexting and cybersex can be defined as the act of sending sexually explicit materials through mobile phones or any other type of communication device. The messages may be text, photo, or video which are sent from a sender to a recipient.
Phone sex involves explicit and sexually verbal communication between two people via the phone for the purposes of sexual gratification.

The growth of technology and the rise of social media has come with various addictions, vices and behaviour patterns that were thought to be unthinkable a few decades ago. Sexting and cybersex is one of them.
Therefore is sexting, cybersex and phone sex a sin? Should these behaviours be viewed as harmless? Should society normalize these behaviours as just another method of sexual self-gratification?

While sexting, phone sex or cybersex may not involve physical contact, the Bible does warn us against having impure sexual thoughts.
For example, Jesus warned that lusting after a woman in your heart is just the same as committing the physical act of adultery itself.
In Matthew 5:27-28, Jesus said: “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.”
Therefore with God, our inner thoughts are just as important as our actions. Our inner thoughts and motives actually reflect our true nature. As a man thinketh in his heart so is he (Proverbs 23:7).

Philippians 4:8 says: Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

It’s clear then that sexting, phone sex and any form of cybersex energizes and stimulates people’s thought patterns in an unholy manner. It feeds an individual’s lusts. It encourages masturbation and creates an impure desire for self-gratification. It also creates impure sexual fantasies that dishonor God but instead it corrupts the soul.
The Bible encourages us to flee from sexual immorality and that whoever commits sexual immorality sins against his own body (1 Corinthians 6:18).

The marriage relationship must be honored because it is God who created marriage. A husband and wife are one flesh in God’s eyes (Genesis 2:24). Sex should be enjoyed within the confines of marriage.

Adultery is a sin before God and therefore the marriage bed should be honored. Hebrews 13:4 says: Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.

It’s also a sin to sow division within people’s marriages or to cause the divorce of another married couple because in the context of marriage, Jesus said the following: What God has joined together, let no one separate (Mark 10:9).

Therefore sexting, phone sex or cybersex are forms of sexual immorality. They do not improve the life of a person and neither do they glorify God in any fashion. Ultimately sexual immorality is spiritually harmful to individuals, marriages, families and society.