A Pastoral Concern -- Cohabiting without Marriage

God's design for marriage is very straight forward -- one man and one woman unite for a life-long union.  Any variation of this format defies God's word.


This particular post spring boards from a blog post from Gene Edward Veith here.


While God's word is the standard that determines right and wrong, a study (see the link for Veith's blog) also demonstrates that defying God's word under the excuse that it is more convenient or that marriage is merely a matter of bureaucratic paperwork is not in the best interest of husband, wife, and child(ren).  To this world, this is ground breaking material.  To adherents of the Bible, this is not surprising.


Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled... (Hebrews 13:4)  God not only tells us what marriage is designed to be and that it is good, but he also blesses those who heed his word.  Again, to the world it is ground breaking; to the Christian it is not a surprise.  Instead, it is cherished.