The Marriage Strengthening Research & Dissemination Center (or MAST Center) recently released a new report illustrating the vast scale of disillusionment regarding the institution of marriage in the eyes of America’s young people.
Among other findings, the study found that almost 80% of teenagers (categorized as 15- to 19-year-olds) expect to cohabit before marriage, with 95% saying that they expect to marry someday.
In an article analyzing the report, Alysse ElHage of the Institute for Family Studies highlighted some particularly revealing comments from teenagers about their thoughts on marriage from a New York Times story from 2019.
A teen from Texas reflected:
I feel like nowadays it’s not really as important to get married, especially for people of my age and generation. The reason being is that we are being taught by our parents and educators that our education should come first in order to have a stable life financially and career wise, which causes many people to neglect the thought of marriage. Not only that, but society has also made marriage seem like it should be like the least important thing for a person to think about.
What does the bible say about living together before marriage?
The Bible does not explicitly address couples living together before marriage too often, but we do see in the Bible that it was unheard of for unmarried couples to live together before marriage.
Couples in the Bible did not live together before marriage
We see in the Bible that God intended for couples to live together only after they were married.
“This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” – Genesis 2:24 NLT
The emphasis in this Bible verse is the fact that a man leaves his father and mother, indicating that the man and woman lived with their families, not each other, before they got married.
And we see in John 4 that Jesus points out that the Samaritan woman was living with a man who she wasn’t married to.
“Jesus said, “You’re right! You don’t have a husband— for you have had five husbands, and you aren’t even married to the man you’re living with now. You certainly spoke the truth!” – John 4:17-18 NLT
While Jesus did not want to judge this woman for living with a man she wasn’t married to, he makes a point to mention this fact to highlight that she shouldn’t be living to a man who she isn’t married to.
We are to avoid sexual sin, including having sex while living together without being married
The Bible also makes it clear that we are not to engage in sexual immorality or fornication.
“God’s will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin.
Then each of you will control his own body and live in holiness and honor— not in lustful passion like the pagans who do not know God and his ways.” – 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 NLT
God intended for sex to be enjoyed between a husband and wife in marriage, so couples having sex outside of marriage would be considered a sin.
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