"Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!" – Rom 11:33

And you are right on about the "resting from work" a la Hebrews 4. I am indeed describing the fruit of faith.

The point is this: when deciding whether a particular deed, course of action, etc, is sinful, the question is always: "Was it done in faith (in the finished work of Christ)?"

I could go to Galatians here as well. Maybe I should. "Neither circumcision or uncircumcision is anything, but only faith working through love."

I think you might have meant to say that "sex" isn't sin. Premarital sex, both the act and the motives behind it are all sinful from start to finish, just like murder. Killing is not sinful, but murder is… sex is not sinful, but premarital sex is. The lack of faith produces the perversion of both sex and killing and turns them into premarital sex and murder respectively.

"The line is faith. Are you doing what you are doing (whatever it is that you find yourself doing!) to further magnify The Glory of The Lord Jesus? This is what he asks us to do, whether eating, drinking, working, sleeping, playing, or praying, hugging or Twittering. It is for Him, not for you."

I think what you're describing is the fruit of faith, that as children of God we want to glorify him. That is very true indeed. But I fear that the danger of the admonition is that we strive for the fruit (which will produce despair or pride) rather than to strive to enter into the rest (Heb. 4) in the finished work of Christ which produces that fruit in sinners who are grateful for having been redeemed.

That said there is a lot of good stuff to chew on. Thanks Matt!

NOW, from a social standpoint (which is as important) lust is only in the heart and only defiling yourself. Carrying out the act would be defiling someone else along with yourself.

Still working this out. Thanks for the participation

I know what you're getting at, but I fear that (though I suspect unintentionally) the particular statement about premarital sex abstracts away an individual sin that the Lord calls out specifically in his Word on numerous occasions.

Don't mean to deviate from your actual point here (which is important, and essential to folks understanding why they sin and why every sin should be viewed as offensive to God), just felt that should be said.