Taboo – Living Together is the first in our five week summer series on Marriage. What a better place to start the conversation than to consider why so many are skipping marriage altogether! Most of the couples in our society who end up getting married start by living together.
By The Numbers
According to a study by Pew Research couples that don’t live together before marriage are happier. What does that look like? Consider these stats.
- Trust each other more
- Serve each other more
- More satisfied household chores
- More satisfied with sex
- More likely to raise healthy children
- More likely to be faithful
I don’t think it’s a jump in logic to say that marriage is better! God’s plan for your life with your boy/girl friend is best carried out through marriage.
God’s Plan
Living together is a dangerous distortion of marriage. Why? Consider God’s command from Ephesians 5. Each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. Folks who are living together think,
I love you…
…but if I’m not happy, then I’m gone.
…but if you don’t do enough for me, I’m packing my bags.
There is no IF in marriage. God’s plan is for unconditional love. Consider how different this is.
I will love you…
…if you deserve my love.
…if you don’t deserve my love.
For Better or Worse
Marriage has a VOW – for better or worse. That vow is to the person you are married to, of course. More importantly that vow is to the Lord. On the days you don’t feel like being married, when you wake up and you think I don’t love this person anymore, it’s all beside the point. You made a vow to God that you would remain married to this person the rest of your life. It is this permanence that makes marriage the strong building block of society. This is why children can be raised in an environment of unconditional love.
Want to hear more? Watch this week’s Bible study from our summer series, Taboo – Living Together.