What is the Difference Between Chastity and Abstinence?
Abstinence is refraining from sexual activity. Chastity is the virtue of rightly ordering all your sexual desires toward authentic love. Abstinence is one expression of chastity – but chastity is the bigger, deeper, lifelong reality. You can be abstinent without being chaste, and chastity doesn’t end when you get married. It transforms. The Deeper Story This distinction matters more than most people realize. And here’s why: if you think chastity is just “not having sex,” you’ll white-knuckle your way through dating and feel like you’re missing out. But if you understand chastity as a positive virtue – a way of seeing and loving people as God sees them – everything changes. ...