It is quite common these days to find people living together before marriage. There have been several debates surrounding this issue.
Some believe that living together before marriage gives couples a better chance of learning about one other’s strengths and faults.
They can share the bill and save towards the wedding and day-to-day expenses of marriage.
Others believe that it strengthens the relationship, primarily if the couple was engaged before moving in together.
Another school of thought holds that living together makes the transition from honeymoon to marriage simpler because they already know what to expect.
Cohabitation is another term for living together before marriage.
Others refer to it as “shacking up.” Whatever you call it, anything done against God’s original order is a sin, and it always ends in calamity.
Hold up! You may be offended by the mention of God in this issue. After all, no Bible text expressly prohibits cohabitation. However, Hebrews 13:4 MSG plainly indicates in the Bible,
Honor marriage, and guard the sacredness of sexual intimacy between wife and husband. God draws a firm line against casual and illicit sex.
Hebrews 13:4 MSG
If the argument is that the man and the woman are both engaged and will marry in two weeks,
Why can’t they wait till the ceremonies are through before doing their wifey or husband duties?
Having an engagement ring doesn’t make you married. After all, anything worth doing deserves to be done well.
If you are single act like it and if you are married act like it.
Men are hardwired to hunt. They enjoy having bragging rights for completing difficult tasks. They don’t place much value on items that come cheaply to them.
We should never be influenced by other people’s unsuccessful relationships to make decisions that may affect us in the future.
Just because other individuals have made moving in together cool does not make it proper. We never know what will occur.
One of God’s purposes for marriage is for two people, male and female, who understand the marriage covenant to create an atmosphere for which the purpose of God for the relationship will be fulfilled and then raise godly children.
This is the reason why cohabitation can never be a test drive for marriage because those are two different things. Especially when you want to have a kingdom marriage as God intended.
Living with a man implies that you are preparing him to become adulterous in the making. Garbage goes in, garbage comes out.
We are the treasure as ladies, and whoever gets us receives God’s favor since we are the favor carriers.
Any guy who wants to be absolutely honest with you will tell you that you can’t pin a guy with sex since there are a million other individuals who will satisfy his sexual needs.
Remove sex from the equation to see if you have a meaningful connection at all.
Why couples should not live together before marriage
It’s not a good idea to live together before getting married.
Living with your spouse before marriage is also a sin before God. God established marriage before cohabitation. Consult the Bible.
Nobody wants to buy a cow if the milk is free. Nobody can just stroll into a Ferrari or Lamborghini dealership and request a test drive in one of their latest models.
It’s because they place a high value on their product. We are valuable to God, and we were designed to be valuable. We should treat ourselves with respect.
If a man demands that you sleep with him before he will marry you, he is a baby. Wait for a genuine man who understands what true love entails. Purity is still fashionable.
We will not engage in the wrong thing if we call it by its proper name, as we should.
Living together is fornication, not simply cohabitation.
When it comes to fornication, God warns us to stay away. Don’t think about it, don’t pray about it, and don’t try to fix it. The Bible instructs us to flee.
There’s more to sex than mere skin on skin. Sex is as much spiritual mystery as physical fact. As written in Scripture, “The two become one.” Since we want to become spiritually one with the Master, we must not pursue the kind of sex that avoids commitment and intimacy, leaving us more lonely than ever—the kind of sex that can never “become one.”
There is a sense in which sexual sins are different from all others. In sexual sin we violate the sacredness of our own bodies, these bodies that were made for God-given and God-modeled love, for “becoming one” with another. Or didn’t you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit?
Don’t you see that you can’t live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body.
1 Corinthians 6:18-20 MSG
Illicit sex has become the reason why most families and destinies have been destroyed.
How avoiding sex before marriage will save your life.
What are the disadvantages of living together before marriage?
There are numerous reasons why couples should not live together before marriage.
1. Your marriage and life are built on the wrong foundation:
Some argue that the Bible does not prohibit cohabitation.
Consider the order in which God created things and the principles that underpin them.
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
Genesis 2:24 ASV
If the man you wish to spend the rest of your life with does not comprehend God’s marriage rules, the first verse says, “A man shall go.”
He has no connection to God. His hands are constantly on you whenever you’re together. What authority does he have to lead you or your family?
What motivates him, and what is the aim of his creation? What are his mentors, and don’t tell me there’s one dead author you won’t be able to contact when you both face obstacles, because they will come?
Adam was given employment to cultivate the garden when God created him.
Moving in together will make you view marriage as a contract and not a covenant relationship. When the purpose of a thing is unknown, abuse is inevitable.
The difference between cohabitation and a godly marriage is that cohabitation is founded on selfish motives, but a Godly marriage is founded on mutual service.
You will muck up your life and the lives of others if you do not understand these concepts and what the marriage institution is all about.
Do you know yourself well enough as a woman? What do you want to be called? What are you looking for? What was your purpose in being born?
You will fall for anything if you are unaware of your identity in Christ.
When you realize that your identity comes from God, who made you important, rather than your relationship,
You’ll protect your value and refuse to live with a man before getting married. You’re not wedded just because you’ve gotten engaged. Disobeying God leads to destruction.
2. It leads to divorce
You haven’t given yourselves enough time to get to know each other. How can you expect marriage to fix you if you don’t like yourself? Do you have a relationship with God that is different from just going to church?
How to Build A Relationship with God
3. The relationship is built on pretense and not love
When dating, some people pretend merely to get the ring. When the ring arrives, however, they are unable to maintain the act.
4. There is no vision for the relationship
Because the relationship had no end aim, and I don’t mean getting married. What purpose would it serve as people made in God’s image?
Marriage is about achieving the purpose that God intends for that partnership, not about us. God made us for worship and fellowship.
Does Living together before marriage prevent divorce?
Divorce cannot be avoided by cohabiting before marriage. Instead, it provides you a thousand reasons to think about it.
Expect him to be unfaithful in the marriage since he has been educated to be an adulterer.
He no longer respects you, especially if you were initially difficult to get.
There’s also nothing interesting in the marriage to look forward to. He’s been in that situation before. The pleasures and excitement of being a newlywed pair are passed. Why won’t he want to cheat?
