Estimated reading time: 2 minute(s)
Not like, serious, like as opposed to like, trivial… ya know… just like serious, like for REAL and stuff…
🙂
SO, for some reason, I was just thinking about shacking up (not ME silly… about those who do in general) and how it’s wrong and all, and then I thought… wait… where does it say that it’s wrong?
And then I really wondered…
The Bible talks a lot about adultery (which to me is the breaking of the commitment to fidelity that you make when you marry) and even homosexuality and incest and stuff… does it specifically say it’s bad to live together and/or have sex BEFORE marriage?
The only spot I could think of is where Jesus tells “the woman at the well” (John 4) that she has had 5 husbands, “and the man you have now is not your husband.” I have always read that as a prophet kinda way of exposing her to the truth. BAAAAD woman! You should not be a-shackin’ up! But… that’s a pretty weak case for something that I have always known is clearly wrong…
So… I’d like your help. Post your comments below. Help me out here. Where does it SPECIFICALLY say that living together and/or sex before marriage is a sin? Not inferred… though if you make a good case, I will certainly accept it… but real, straight up truth. And stuff. 🙂
I will see what I can come up with too.
No real reason, just the constant search for truth. 🙂 Thanks for joining me in my quest!
Hey Greg,
I can hardly say I’m a biblical Scholar, seeing as I’m only just starting my first real Bible study… But doing a quick search through my the best reference I can find are in 1 Cor. 7… verses throughout… It may merely be a cultural thing, like not drinking alcohol… Or a cleanliness thing to prvent VD… be “pure” and all. I don’t know.
interesting that you should bring this up, b/c these kinda things i’ve been wondering about as well. and i don’t know if there is a place in scripture where it says to not shack up before you get married, but even among non-christian people of that time i think that was a more accepted thing – you just don’t do that – which could be why it wasn’t specifically addressed. i think that doing so could more easily lead a couple into the temptation of sex before marriage, which God WAS clear about, and so people don’t do it in order to remove that temptation. but to me it’s kinda like people who are afraid of getting drunk and who choose to never drink. it’s not wrong to drink, but there is a line when it becomes sin – being when you are drunk. so some, in order to avoid that, abstain from alcohol all together. that’s fine, and that’s their choice. and maybe a man and a woman COULD live together sex-free before they’re married, but most people i know have a lot harder time saying no to sex with someone they love than to a miller lite. ha!
it’s like paul saying “everything is permissible but not everything is beneficial”. what’s weird about that is that’s telling us we’re allowed to sin! – it’s permissible (“everything” is all inclusive) – but that doesn’t mean that it’s good for us, and that doesn’t mean that it’s the way God intended for us to function.
i have a friend (a christian) who’s living with his fiance (who’s not). but he chose to not wait till marriage so really the wedding will be her changing her name and that’s all that will really change. and some presents. (in my opinion it certainly takes a lot of the excitement out of it, but that’s a whole other conversation.) but i love them, and i’m happy for them, and although i don’t agree with his decision and don’t condone it, i’m not going to judge him and think of him as less than i. there are plenty of things i do that i don’t agree with and don’t condone and i do them anyway. i think it would have been better for their future marriage to wait, b/c that’s how God created us to function, but it’s not like he hasn’t been forgiven for all sins past/present/future and that he’s now condemned to hell b/c he’s living in a “perpetual state of sin” (which sidebar: is a completely retarded phrase b/c hello! aren’t we all?) by choosing to shack up before he was married.
okay this was a long comment and i have further thoughts that maybe i’ll share on the other post.