Can you have sex while fasting? No, you can not be intimate with your wife while fasting as it contradicts the very essence of consecration. Remember fasting is intended to separate oneself to God for a season by consecrating yourself to pray and meditate on the Word.
Related: Should you continue fasting if you get sick?
Having sex with your spouse while fasting distracts you from devoting yourself fully to prayer, as it turns your attention to your carnal needs at the expense of your spiritual obligation. It also drains your energy which is needed during the fast.
Honestly, what is the essence of fasting if you can’t deny yourself sexual pleasures with your spouse? Biblical fasting is a commitment to separate oneself and deny yourself fleshly needs (including eating and intimacy) to exercise spiritual obligations as a Christian.
What does the Bible say about sex during fasting?
Exodus 19:14-15 After Moses had gone down the mountain to the people, he consecrated them, and they washed their clothes. Then he said to the people, "Prepare yourselves for the third day. Abstain from sexual relations."
In the above verses we learn that when God wanted to meet the people of Israel, He commanded Moses to instruct them to set themselves apart by refreshing from intimacy for a while. And this should be the case every time we choose to fast.
There has to be a distinction between your routine life and a season of fasting. If you find it difficult to abstain from sexual pleasures with your spouse for a while, then you don’t have to fast. However, it’s wise to bring your body under submission to the will of the spirit.
Again, if you desire to fast but your spouse doesn’t consent, for the sake of the marriage union you should not fast. In this case, as a man you should consider fasting when your wife is on her period. And the woman should fast when her husband is not around. Wisdom is supreme, therefore, do this to save your marriage.
1 Corinthians 7:5 Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
