Love And Respect In Marriage
Husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. . . . Let each one of you . . . so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband . Without mutual love and respect on the part of husbands and wives, a marriage cannot last. Keep up the early attentions. Look for the positive qualities in your spouse, and nurture that respect and love that first drew you together.
God Uses Marriage For Reproduction
26. Genesis 1:28 God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply! Fill the earth and subdue it! Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that moves on the ground.
Christians wait until marriage. Marriage is to fulfill our sexual needs. In fact, it is better to marry than to burn with lust.
27. 1 Corinthians 7:1-5 Now for the matters you wrote about: It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman. But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband. The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife. Do not deprive each other except perhaps 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.
28. 1 Corinthians 7:9 But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.
When will God give me a spouse?
29. Proverbs 31:10 A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.
Bonus
Will God Forgive Living Together Before Marriage
God is a forgiving God, and he will forgive you if youre already living together before marriage and want to make things right.
No sin is too big for God to redeem, and he promises to forgive our sins when we repent and confess our sins.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9 CSB
“No, I tell you but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” Luke 13:3 ESV
But how do you repent if youre already living together? Should you get married? Should you move out?
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Concerning Change Of Status
17 Nevertheless, each person should live as a believer in whatever situation the Lord has assigned to them, just as God has called them. This is the rule I lay down in all the churches.18 Was a man already circumcised when he was called? He should not become uncircumcised. Was a man uncircumcised when he was called? He should not be circumcised.19 Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping Gods commands is what counts.20 Each person should remain in the situation they were in when God called them.
21 Were you a slave when you were called? Dont let it trouble youalthough if you can gain your freedom, do so.22 For the one who was a slave when called to faith in the Lord is the Lords freed person similarly, the one who was free when called is Christs slave.23 You were bought at a price do not become slaves of human beings.24 Brothers and sisters, each person, as responsible to God, should remain in the situation they were in when God called them.
Hes Loyal And He Doesnt Cheat
The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife. 1 Corinthians 7:4
In reality, a loyal person who doesnt have any history of cheating will not fill your mind with doubts and jealousy but with peace of mind. And with peace of mind, you can spend your married life with more productive activities that your family can enjoy. Also, you wont like the idea of surrendering your body solely to your husband, while hes sharing his body to other women out there. That would be so unfair, right?
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Christ And The Church Marriage
4. Ephesians 5:25-27 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word. He did this to present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless.
5. Revelation 21:2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
6. Revelation 21:9 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven final plagues came and spoke to me, saying, Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb!
While You Wait And Work
Gods love and grace transforms people who invite him into their lives. God wants to encourage all of us who are weary from waiting and disappointed dreams. Nothing is too hard for the Lord. We just have to give him control and wait for him to transform us and our expectations of love and marriage. We just have to pray and invite him into our struggle.
Be encouraged while you wait and work and wonder. Dig into Scripture. Pray without ceasing. God will speak to youhe will answer your questions about marriage if you are truly listening and growing. God loves you. His goal is to make your life full and meaningful. He is love.
As long as you are pursuing God, you will know who to marry, when to marry, or if to marry.
Youll just know.
Sue Schlesman is an award-winning author, speaker, blogger, English teacher, and minister. Her second book, Soulspeak: Praying Change into Unexpected Places, won a Selah Award in 2020. Sue has a BA in Creative Writing and a Masters in Theology & Culture. Her material appears in a variety of print, online, radio, and podcast mediums. You can find her writing about life, education, and Jesus at sueschlesman.com and 7prayersthatwork.com, which attract visitors from across the globe.
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What Does The Bible Say About Sleeping In The Same Bed Before Marriage
If you are considering living together unmarried, you may also be wondering, is it a sin to sleep in the same bed before marriage with your boyfriend?
If the Bible does not permit having sex or living together before marriage, sleeping in the same bed would not be pleasing to God either.
In Hebrews 13, the Bible talks about honoring the marriage bed by keeping it pure.
Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. Hebrews 13:4 NIV
The ESV Bible translation says let the marriage bed undefiled.
And I personally think that sleeping in the same bed before you are married defiles the marriage bed.
As Christians, we already know that we are to avoid sexual immorality and to avoid situations that would cause us to be tempted into sexual sin.
Sleeping in the same bed would not be wise as it could easily cause sexual sin.
Its like saying you arent going to eat a piece of cake, but then you take the cake out of the fridge and stare at it while its sitting on the counter.
If you take the cake out and stare at it, youre most likely going to eat the piece of cake.
Likewise, if you sleep in the same bed together, youre most likely going to engage in physical activity or sexual sin.
Not sleeping in the same bed before marriage is a physical boundary you should set in your relationship.
Close Bond In Marriage
The Lord God said, It is not good that man should be alone I will make a helper comparable to him . After each of the six days of Creation week, God reviewed what He had made and saw that it was good. But there was one thing in Eden that very first week that was not good! All the animals God had created, came in pairsa male and a female. But there was no female for Adam! That is when God created Eve and performed the very first marriage .
God made men and women to complement each otherphysically, mentally, and socially. He built into our being a desire for the companionship of a husband or wife. Thats why the Bible says, He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor from the Lord .
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What Does The Bible Say About Sex Before Marriage
- Gregg FarahAsk the Expert for Guys
- 202131 May
I am a Christian and I have sex with my girlfriend. I believe I’m going to marry her, but I want to know where in the Bible it says not to have sex before marriage.The Bible is filled with lots of info about sex, and believe it or not, God thinks it’s a great idea! And why shouldn’t He, He invented it. But, just as it would be unwise to ice skate on a lake in the middle of summer, it’s also unwise to have sex with anyone who’s not your wife.Why? There are tons of practical, common-sense reasons that have significant consequences. Some consequences include dealing with the possibility of pregnancy, acquiring or sharing a sexually transmitted disease, and the most underrated — but possibly most impacting — are the emotional issues that sexually active teens struggle with and take into their marriage.But you asked for biblical evidence, so let’s look at the following verses, along with some questions to consider:
What Does The Bible Say About Marriage
In marriage you are not only committing to each other in companionship, you are committing to each other in everything. Nothing comes before your spouse.
Obviously God is the center piece of your marriage, but nothing besides the Lord is more important than your spouse. Not the kids, not church, not spreading the gospel, nothing!
If you had one rope and you had to choose between your spouse or everything else in the world hanging off a cliff, you choose your spouse.
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God’s Law Is For Our Benefit
Pretty heavy stuff! But remember, God is not down on fun, and He’s not down on sex. Instead, He’s down on pain. And He knows that if we pursue anything outside of His guidelines, we will suffer consequences. Here’s the good part. Because of God’s love for us, He has established sexual guidelines that will increase our sexual pleasure. Yup, when a husband and wife do things God’s way, they can enjoy some great sex!And so until you’re married, God wants you to pursue and love Him, and to honor and love your current girlfriend and your future spouse by waiting to have sex until you’re married.Sure, you’ve already had sex, but you can begin waiting today. And sure, maybe sexual sin is something you’ve struggled with for a long time and don’t think you can just stop. So how about taking the first step and asking for God’s help? Are you willing to do that?And then how about taking the next step and asking a friend to pray with you and encourage you. You might even need to break up with your girlfriend. I don’t know. And because I don’t know the specifics of your situation, that’s why you need to be encouraged and supported by friends.I do know, however, that God is crazy about you and will walk with you through this. He’s just waiting for you. Will you take God’s hand and walk with Him? Please e-mail me back and let me know.
So Does The Bible Really Say Its Wrong
Before you book a hotel room and call up your girlfriend with the good news, please keep reading! Yes, the Bible does say that all forms of sex outside of marriage are wrong. Heres how.
The early chapters of Genesis give a basic blueprint for marriage, and even though it never says Thou shall not have sex before marriage, it certainly suggests that sex outside of marriage flows against Gods design. Gods command to be fruitful and multiply is joyfully heeded by Adam and Eve after they are joined in marriage . The same goes for their descendants. Noah, Shem, Abram and others all have sex and therefore have children within the confines of a marriage covenant.
When they turn to other women, such as Abrahams sexual relations with Hagar , the act was not considered an affair. Hagar was more like a modern day surrogate mother who bears a child in the place of an infertile wife. Nevertheless, these acts dont appear to be sanctioned by God, even though they were widely accepted in Israels culture.
Throughout the Old Testament, its assumed that God designed sex for marriage. Deuteronomy condemns a soon to be wife who has had sex before marriage , and the love poetry contained in the Song of Songs delights in the joys of sex but reserves it for a husband and wife. Extra-marital sex is never looked upon with divine approval in the Old Testament, no matter how bright the love-flame burns.
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Additional Scriptures About Sex And Marriage
“Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.” ~ 1 Corinthians 7:1-4
“To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single as I am. But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.” ~ 1 Corinthians 7:8-9
“For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality 4 that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.” ~ 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8
Top 10 Bible Verses About Marriage
The Bible has a lot to say about marriage, so lets make a Top Ten List of the most important Bible texts about marriageand then look at each one more closely.
1) Mark 10:6-9 = God instituted marriage and gives it His blessing.
2) Genesis 2:18 = God created humans with an innate need and desire for the close bond that marriage provides.
3) Genesis 2:23, 24 = Husband and wife become one in the marriage bond.
4) Ecclesiastes 9:9 = Marriage is a lifelong commitment.
5) Ephesians 5:28, 33 = Husbands and wives are to love and respect each other.
6) II Corinthians 6:14 = Husbands and wives should be bonded together with a similarity of beliefs, goals, and objectives.
7) Exodus 20:17 = Husbands and wives are to be sexually faithful to each other in the marriage relationship.
8) Matthew 5:32 = Adultery is the only biblically acceptable reason for divorce.
9) Isaiah 62:5 = An ideal marriage relationship mirrors Gods loving relationship with His people.
10) Proverbs 31:10 = A strong marriage relationship is a precious thing.
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Does God Allow Women To Remarry
Next, does the Bible allow a woman to divorce and remarry? Mark 10:11-12 answers the question.
And He said to them, Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her and if she herself divorces her husband and marries another man, she is committing adultery. Mark 10:11-12
It should be noted here that Mark did not record the exception clause that Jesus included in Matthew 5:32. Mark 10:11-12 clearly teaches that normally divorce is not allowed. If divorce does occur, adultery is committed unless the husband previously was unfaithful. Jesus gives two different situations here. The second situation occurs when a wife divorces her husband. That is, women could divorce their husband too! Today, two-thirds of all divorces in the United States are filed by women.
Therefore, when a wife divorces her husband, she may commit adultery in the process. We must remember that the exception clause from Matthew 5:32 also applies. We cannot pick and choose the verses from the Bible that we want to follow. For example, the Bible does not teach everything about a subject in just one passage of Scripture. Jesus did not teach everything about Himself, prayer, or divorce and marriage in one passage. We must remember that Scripture never contradicts itself. So, a wife can divorce and remarry but only if her husband committed sexual sin with another person.