The Greek word 'porneía,' often translated fornication or adultery far-reaches beyond the complexities of illicit sex.
The same word is translated 'idolatry' in scripture. Why?
In original scriptural rendering, the word 'porneia' is translated fornication, adultery, or idolatry by translators depending on the context of its usage in scripture.
To get a good grasp of this word, you need to understand God's own classification of sexual immorality.
In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul narrated how three thousand of the children of Israel in the wilderness were killed in one day because of porneía.
The word is translated fornication by all translators of the New Testament. But if you refer to this very event in the Old Testament where it actually occurred, you'd discover that it was idolatry that the people indulged in.
So Paul in the actual sense was dealing with a situation where the people switched their worship from God to a newly found god that they cross-mated their souls with it.
This makes it clear that porneía as a word far-reaches beyond sexual entanglements; it deals with the desecration of the instrument of worship to God. In this case, our body. How?
The scripture says that the body is not for sexual immorality. Why? It is the house of God. God calls it his temple.
The same way a church sanctuary could be desecrated by bringing an idol into it is how illegitimate joining of the body through illicit sex desecrates the temple of God in us.
The scripture says that anyone who commits fornication sins against his own body. How?
Sinning against his own body doesn't mean that he's not sinning against God. God wanted the individual to understand that fornication is a dishonour to his body.
In other words, the individual has no respect for the same body where he houses God. It's like using a posh car to transport refuse dump. Anyone who does that with his posh car is dishonouring the car, isn't it?
That's the picture God was painting.
God considers it idolatrous. The bodies of Christians are spiritual places of worship. That's where the intercourses between divinity and humanity happen.
God does not dwell in temples made with hands. God is not in Canaan Land. He is not in Glory Dome. He doesn't dwell in Redemption Camp. God dwells in each individual Christian.
We are his temple. If we use or transact our bodies illegitimately, it is tantamount to idolatry. This is the link between idolatry, fornication and adultery; hence, the use of the word 'porneia' to describe all activities.