WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT....
Living Together Before
Marriage?
1 Corinthians
6:18-20 & 1 Corinthians 7:1-2
"Flee fornication. Every sin
that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication
sinneth against his own body. What? know ye not that your body is the temple
of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your
own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and
in your spirit, which are God's. Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote
unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, to avoid
fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her
own husband."
The dictionary meaning
of the word "fornication" means any unlawful sexual intercourse including
adultery. In the Bible the Greek definition of the word "fornication" means
to commit illicit sexual intercourse. What constitutes
unlawful sex? Whose laws do we live by? Worldly standards or laws many times
do not always line up with the Word of God. The founding fathers of the
United States established many laws that were originally based on Christian
standards and the laws of the Bible. However, through time the United States
has drifted far from these standards and at the present our moral standards
are shocking the world. However, immorality is not only found in the U.S.
but is a world-wide epidemic. Societies throughout history and around the
globe have embraced sexual standards that are called sins in the Bible.
Fornication is not just
tolerated in our society but is actually being encouraged. The sin of
fornication is being committed even among Christians, as many couples "live
together" and have sex before marriage. The Bible tells us to flee this sin.
We have counseled Christians of the opposite sex who share an apartment and
they told us they were not having sex so this surely wasn't wrong. The Bible
declares these words in 1 Thessalonians 5:22-23:
"Abstain from
all appearance of evil. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I
pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Our lives as Christians
are a living witness to others and we cannot break the laws of God without
hindering others from coming to Christ. We must live our lives in purity
before a sinful and wicked world. We should not be living according to their
standards but according to God's standard in the Bible. No couple should
live together outside the bonds of marriage.
Many say they live
together before marriage to see if they are compatible as they don't want to
divorce. This may sound like a justifiable reason for committing the sin of
fornication, but in God's eyes it is still sin. Statistics however, show
that those who live together before marriage are more likely to get a
divorce than those who do not. Living together shows a total lack of trust
in God and a failure to commit to Him the choosing of a mate. Christians who
are living in this situation are out of the will of God and
need to repent and seek God as to whether this person is the right one for
them. If it is God's will for them to be together they
should marry. Otherwise, they need to change their living arrangements.
As Christians, the goal
of any relationship should be to cause the people in our lives to love and
know the Lord better. Living together is shameful and selfish as the parties
do not care what others think or how they might affect their families and
others. They are living to please their own lust and selfish desires. This
type of life style is destructive and especially so for children whose
parents are living a bad example before them. No wonder our
children are confused about right and wrong when parents degrade the
sanctity of marriage by living together out of wedlock. How
can living together cause children to love and honor God when their parents
break the laws of God before them because they are lustful?
Young people today need
to be taught to abstain from sexual intercourse and remain pure virgins
before marriage. So many problems in marriages today stem from the fact that
they are not virgins when they marry. Young people are bringing wounded
emotions and diseased bodies into their marriages because of prior
promiscuous affairs. STDs (Sexually Transmitted Diseases) are so widespread
that the statistics are shocking. There are 12 million new cases of STDs
annually in the United states and 67% of these occur among persons under the
age of 25. In fact, every year one out of six teens contracts an STD.
100,000 to 150,000 women become infertile each year as a result of STDs.¹
Others endure years of pain as some of these diseases are incurable. What a
tragic price to pay for sexual sins. The Bible is right when it says
fornication is a sin against one's own body.
The sin of fornication
is not only defined as illicit sexual intercourse between those who are not
married but also is an umbrella for other sexual sins as well. The Bible
also speaks of the sin of incest as fornication in 1 Corinthians
5:1:
"It is reported
commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not
so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's
wife."
The Bible also lists
whoremongers as fornicators in Revelation 21:8:
But the
fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and
whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their
part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second
death.
All prostitutes and
pimps are fornicators. Couples who just "live together" according to the
Bible, are committing the same sin that whores commit.
Singles who "make love" fall into the same category. Just because society
has accepted this type of living does not make it right. The Bible must be
our standard of what is right and wrong. We must change our
standards if we do not want the wrath of God to fall on us. God hates sin
but He loves the sinner. If anyone repents and calls on Jesus today He will
help them to come out of any illicit relationship and heal them of all past
hurts and even heal any disease that they may have
contracted.
God gave us the laws in
the Bible for our good. They are not meant to deny us any good thing but
they are given so we can enjoy the proper sexual relationship in the proper
time. If we obey the words of the Bible and "flee fornication"
and glorify God in our bodies, the Lord will bless
us beyond what we could believe.
Psalm
145:17-21: "The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his
works. The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call
upon him in truth. He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also
will hear their cry, and will save them. The LORD preserveth all them that
love him: but all the wicked will he destroy. My mouth shall speak the
praise of the LORD: and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and
ever."
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