We can use the one up above, the genesis verse.
I don't believe either of us have really kept this thread on-track as far as the OP's original question.
I'm not sure I see how.
My position has been, make the commitment to be together, and when you have sex, you are married. it's the sex that is the moment of marriage. I'm on record as saying the commitment first more than a time or two. The question was si there something in the Bible about living together before marriage. I guess I am guilty of taking a tangent there. I went to what WOULD be ok on Biblical standards.
This isn't really what you said before though. You said (not a direct quote since it's on the page before and inaccessible to me at the mo) that as soon as they hit the sheets, they were married - simple as that. Which is a pretty slippery slope.
I'm pretty sure I had the commitment in there. At a point it was what made it a marriage. That is the sex. If she and he made a commitment, move in, had sex, they are married. THAT is what the Bible shows a marriage to be. DIfferent cultures had different parties. But it was a covenant between families, lasted several days, culminated in the sexual act, and proof was required. SOMETIMES THEY WATCHED to make sure. Only then, was it a marriage.
It suggests that there's no need for a ceremony, a commitment, a legal document - just have sex.
there is only a need for an agreement between the two people. Well in American main stream culture I guess. For the most part, we don't have people marrying off their daughters for gifts. Arranged marriages are not that common, although they are still here.
That isn't God's idea of marriage any more than it is mine.
Show me. Show me that in Scripture, Show me God's idea of marriage. Having a a legal document, didn't occur until Rome got involved. The Church were the only people (nearly) who knew how to read and write. So, where before the families had a covenant they had to inform themselves, later the Church did the covenants. That's also WHEN The church got involved in marrying people, as opposed to the two families doing it without the church there.
A marriage DOES biblically include a ceremony between two people, two families. There are many references in the Bible about weddings, brides and bridegrooms.
I'll concede that is fact, if you concede there was no legal marriage license involved.
We are left with an agreement between familes, a feast, a sexual act, and confirmation there WAS a sexual act, and they are married in God's eyes, the families eyes, and any witnesses eyes.
The danger here is that what you say insinuates that all we need to "marry" in God's eyes is to have sex.
Ummmmm, ok, clarify, And I've said it before, but obviously it's been a bit. THEY COMMIT TO EACH OTHER, and have sex, and it's a marriage. As opposed to a one night stand. ALTHOUGH, I'm pretty sure if they have sex, God looks at them as ONE person. BUT, I have some iffys here.
(Sex, which is a sin before marriage.) It suggests that this is right and good in God's eyes.
no, it doesn't.
I agree that sex joins people together, and is not looked on lightly by God. I will even agree that once two people have begun living together as a married couple, God may recognize them them as married. But I cannot agree that he considers two people married just because they have sex (with no commitment to one another), and I do not see any scriptural evidence to suggest it either.
I'll give you all of that. for reasons above.
Your brand of sarcasm seems designed to belittle others, which is why I find it inappropriate.
No, it's not. And it's pretty impressive that you feel justified to make that call from text alone, with no voice inflection, and guess (errr ASSUME) my motivation. I use sarcasm to lighten the tone. I use sarcasm instead of just calling a person out for being a rude@@$@. I use sarcasm to mimic their behavior. Sarcasm makes it obvious it's not wholly serious, but a point is made. I find it hilarious though, that a great number of times I was sarcastic, I was mirroring the person who spoke down at me with their logic, tone, and attention. So somehow you feel that is belittling them, but its ok for them to do it to me. Yeah, Every watch Saturday Night Live?
SMILE
If it were self-directed, perhaps I'd feel differently, but it is always outwardly directed, in this thread and others.
show me where I was inappropriate.
Educate me.
If this is a Christian couple who want to do everything in a way that glorifies the Lord, then I do not see why they wouldn't legally marry one another.
What makes you think YOU have to know and approve of what and why they do things? Two men eating meat.... one it was a sin the other it wasn't. The message was, they shouldn't be judging the other. I think, perhaps, the biggest problem may be someone imposing their standards and interpretations of scripture on others. I"m generally focused on what the scripture says. But the more I do that, the more people want to get personal. THEN when I call them on that, you call me a big ole sarcastic meanie.
I can agree that if ALL of this is done, God may view them as married, but I do not believe that he would be pleased with their rebellious spirit in avoiding a legal marriage that would honor and glorify him.
LEGAL MARRIAGE, didn't exist in Jesus time. Not in the sense you have in America now. THERE WAS NO GOVERNMENTAL LICENSING involved. The covenant was between families.
Today, lacking arranged marriages, the two people getting married would make the call and arrangements.
My most significant beef, I guess, is your insisting on a cultural marriage today, that wasn't the culture then. That part being the "legal license" we have today. That concept was non existant the n.
The agreement was between families. Enforced by families.
Today that would be the two being married.