Matthew 19:4 And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, 5 And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? 6 Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh.
One of the evils that has proliferated in our day is the sin of shacking up, the process by which two people of the opposite sex live together under one roof, and are intimately associated with each other, without the vital commitment of marriage, by which a man and a woman are inseparably joined together by a vow that should not be violated till death brings separation. It is a well documented fact that the longer a man and woman live together without the vital commitment of marriage, the less likely they are to do so as the years roll by, and with the lack of a binding agreement, certain evils almost always ensue, which then contribute to a large extent to the decay of the moral fabric of society.
Without a marriage vow, the concept of an open door takes root, for there is in many cases no real desire to stay and work out problems that may seem insurmountable, and with the nuclear option being always on the table, the sense of belonging, and an ardent desire to stay the course is greatly compromised. But as bad as this may be, the situation is potentially worsened a hundredfold whenever children come into the picture, because the open option of being separated for any and every reason, causes the children to be destabilized, and they too will most likely grow up with a compromised sense of commitment to anyone.
According to Biblical principle, sexual intercourse should never be indulged by a man and a woman before the commitment of marriage is made, for here is the root cause of many single-parent families across the land, in which the relationship started off by shacking up, but later ended by packing up, on the part of one party or another. In the experience of Jacob who loved Rachel to the point where he was willing to work in the hot sun for seven years, in order to have the woman of his dreams, he was not allowed to shack up, but rather waited until such time that the marriage could be properly consummated, according to the scriptural guidelines. Let's read:.
Genesis 29:20 And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her. 21 And Jacob said unto Laban, Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go in unto her.
There is a reason why pastors who are conducting a marriage ceremony always say "You may now kiss the bride", meaning that prior to this time, intimate sexual relationship should not have been indulged by the man and woman, and therefore it constitutes a stern rebuke to the practice of shacking up, where mutual loves and intimacies are shared by two people of the opposite sex, without the lifelong commitment of marriage.
For those of us who might be in such a situation, we should consider tying the knot as soon as possible, if we indeed love the other person sincerely. Getting married will not do harm to the relationship, but will instead cement it and make it permanent, without the fear of dissolution or breakup being an option that one could easily resort to. We therefore end with a passage of scripture which confirms the will of God in these matters, and let's try by the grace of God to make the necessary adjustments where applicable. Let's read:
Genesis 24:64 And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she lighted off the camel. 65 For she had said unto the servant, What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? And the servant had said, It is my master: therefore she took a vail, and covered herself. 67 And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her"....
May The Lord add His blessing to the study and practice of His every word. God bless!