Biblical Perspective On Marriage Essay

A BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE ON COHABITATION

Cohabitation is not plainly stated in the Bible but we can infer from the scriptures on marriage and sexual relations out of marriage, the biblical perspective on cohabitation.

A Biblical Perspective on Marriage

Genesis 2:24 says that ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.’ From this perspective marriage can be defined as “a sacred and permanent covenant witnessed and guaranteed by God.” Therefore it is not merely a contract between a husband and a wife but according to Scripture, it is a serious covenant between husband and wife. In a covenant marriage “there is a deeper commitment, a stronger love, and an abiding because God is the senior partner.” Marriage denotes a special, exclusive, and permanent relationship that should only be broken by death. The marriage relationship is so important that God chose it

But cohabitation is morally wrong, if we believe in the moral absolutes that “in a culture which recognizes legal marriage as the public testimony of a man and a woman that they are committing themselves to one another, and thereby assume all the duties as well as privileges of marriage.” In Genesis 2:24 even though it is not overtly mentioned the idea of leaving and cleaving and making a covenant with another person is inferred. When a couple makes their vow during the wedding ceremony they enter into a covenant with one another. This vow is a commitment “to the future as well as the present, whereas cohabitation tends to be a relationship just of the present with the future deliberately left open- ended.” Marriage should not be a private contract between two people and should be conducted in the presence of witnesses. A biblical example is the wedding in Cana, where family and friends were present to witness the