Where does the Bible treat chastity as a virtue — not merely as a list of forbidden acts, but as a positive good worth desiring? The answer runs from the oldest books of Scripture through Christ’s own words to the apostles. And it turns out chastity is not only for the unmarried.
First, a word on what chastity is. It is not the same as the absence of sexuality. It is the right ordering of desire — the freedom to govern appetite rather than be governed by it, and to treat other people as persons to be loved rather than objects to be consumed. It looks different depending on one’s state of life, but in some form it is asked of everyone.
It is older than the Law. Job — one of the most ancient books in the Bible — has its hero say: “I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I look upon a virgin?” (Job 31:1). The Septuagint and Vulgate behind the older translations sharpen the inner sense further (“that I would not so much as think upon a virgin”) — but either way, the point is the same: Job names self-possession in the interior life as part of his integrity. When Joseph flees Potiphar’s wife rather than betray his master (Genesis 39), the same self-possession is already fully formed — and Scripture holds it up as the mark of a righteous man.
It is written into the Law. The Ten Commandments reach past the outward act into the interior life: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife” (Exodus 20:17). The ordering of desire, not only the restraint of action, is commanded.
Christ raised it higher. He drove the standard inward — “every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). But He also lifted chastity to its highest expression. After His hard teaching on marriage and divorce, the disciples wondered aloud whether it was even worth marrying — and Christ answered with something startling:
“The disciples said to him, ‘If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is not expedient to marry.’ But he said to them, ‘Not all men can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to receive this, let him receive it.’” (Matthew 19:10-12)
This is not a grudging concession. Chastity here is a gift freely offered back to God — a whole life handed over to Him. And notice Christ’s own framing: it is a “word” not everyone can receive, given only “to whom it is given.” The renunciation is treated not as deprivation but as a high calling — a good thing, He says, for those able to hold it.
It belongs inside marriage, too. Chastity is not merely a rule for the single — and it is not a suspicion of sex. Scripture calls marriage “held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled” (Hebrews 13:4); the embrace of husband and wife is a true good, one that deepens the bond between them. Within marriage, chastity is simply that good rightly ordered — faithful to one’s spouse, never driven by lust, and always keeping the love of the other person in mind. Paul tells married couples they may even abstain for a time “by agreement for a season, that you may devote yourselves to prayer” (1 Corinthians 7:5): the marriage bed is ordered toward holiness, not ruled by compulsion. He tells the Thessalonians that each should “take a wife for himself in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like heathen who do not know God” (1 Thessalonians 4:4-5). The dignity of the other person governs even the most intimate part of married life.
The apostles taught it as a way of life. Paul tells the Corinthians that their bodies are “a temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:19) — chastity is simply the proper care of something holy. Titus is told to teach both young women and young men to be “chaste” and “self-controlled” as part of ordinary Christian maturity (Titus 2:4-6).
And it runs to the last book. In Revelation, those who “follow the Lamb wherever he goes” are the ones “who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are chaste” (Revelation 14:4) — an image of undivided devotion given wholly to God.
From the oldest book to the last — in the Law, in the words of Christ, in the teaching of the apostles, in marriage and in singleness alike — chastity is not a grim prohibition bolted onto the faith. It is a virtue: the freedom to possess oneself, to love rather than consume, and to give one’s whole self — body included — to God.
Scripture. As the apostolic Church read it.