A Little Q & A For Your Friday From The Enon Church Of Christ

It is true that God intends sex to be enjoyed within marriage.  "Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.  Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband. " (1 Cor. 7:2-3).  "For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality;  that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor,  not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God" (1 Thess. 4:3-5).  It is clear that we are to behave differently from the world in our sexual conduct.

But, nowhere in the Scriptures does God say that having sex with someone means you are married to them.  Although sex belongs in marriage, having sex outside of marriage does not mean you have committed some sort of unforgivable sin.  The only reason a man cannot marry is if he is married to someone already.  So, Paul says, "For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband.  So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man." (Rom. 7:2-3).

The only thing that would keep you from marrying, and having God's approval for that marriage, is if you are already married.  Since you are not married and have never been married, your past sexual sin does not keep you from marrying and enjoying a healthy married life.

I hope this helps.

Mitch Robison

Enon Church of Christ

1366 Enon Road

Webb, AL 36376

[email protected]