Marriage committment

Well on the one hand, having sexual intercourse outside of marriage does form a spiritual bond:

1 Cor. 6:15-16 "15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! 16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For “the two,” He says, “shall become one flesh.”

This however would be an unsanctified union. As for having a sanctified covenant endorsed by God, how young is your brother? Is he still living with your parents? Genesis does make clear that the man shall leave his family and cleave to his wife. If he has not left his family, he is out of biblical order. There is more of course because many worldly people have left their parents and are not legit. I will think more on this. I'm sure others will have good feedback too.

Marriage is a covenant bond between one man and
one woman. Yes, your young brother is trying to
justify living in sin (fornication) as marriage!!

Hello,

I am not justifying the sin, but you need to love this man in spite of his sin. I am saying this because you said "i am angry". I believe we must be very careful in labeling our "anger" as rightoues anger. Especially as young believers we can easily be angry in our zeal, but it is a work of the flesh. Dont misunderstand me, I am not justifying the sin. edit: But do you ask the Lord for brokenness and tears and love for this man?

Daniel

Mar 10:7 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife;
Mar 10:8 And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh.
Mar 10:9 What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

What this couple is missing is that God has not joined them together. They have taken that upon themselves.

God has ordained elders in the body of Christ to provide leadership and oversight. The marriage ceremony is a recognition by this God-ordained eldership of the fact that God has joined the couple and an ordination if you will of their union. The new testament example of setting in place of eldership and spiritual offices in the body were by ordination by existing eldership or apostolic and prophetic leadership. The marriage ceremony is very similar in that it is God's way of officially ordaining the couple to life and ministry together. While there is no specific type or length of ceremony that is required and while these ceremonies are very culturally determined, the fact is that two are recognized and ordained by eldership is important.

My thoughts anyhow.

Travis

that biblically it never says that you have to have a marriage ceremony to be married

This may only partly be true. Scripture does talk about being married but it does not give us any details how this marriage ceremonyis to be performed. However it is to be done, it must be recognized by the prevailing culture that a marriage has occurred and that this couple is now bound together for life.

anybody have any information through church history on what marriage meant in the old testament times

The example of Joseph and Mary could be used here. They were betrothed when she was discovered to be pregnant. This betrothal was so binding that only a divorce could cancel this commitment. The time of betrothal was to give the groom time to prepare a place for he and his bride to live after the wedding. Conjugal relations were not entered into until after the wedding. This was their culture at the time of Christ.

When one studies the obligations of a marriage as recorded in the WORD it would give a person a sound Biblical basis on what constitutes a marriage. For starters you could look up all references in Strongs that relate to divorce, married, marriage, wife and husband. Put them all together and this should teach you all you need to know.

My understanding - hope it helps.

I do understand your frustration when someone will challenge a concept you thought would never be questioned. I agree with another poster who suggested the fellow just wants to justify his sin.

BTW: why does this fellow not want to make a commitment? Sounds to me like as though all he wants is to experience pleasure minus the responcibility. Stinks like a kettle of fish that has been in sun all day long on hot July day in Missippi!

ginnyrose

First off call it like it is. This doesn't take Charles Spurgeon or Ravenhill to answer this question, you're brother is living in sin if not lost as well as his girlfriend. The Word teaches that if we are Christians and believe contrary to something God teaches as true He will correct us. I meditated over this thought myself years ago about marriage vs sex. Biblically, one man + one woman + sex = one flesh. Sex was designed as a blessing meant only in the context of marriage, anything outside of that context is wicked and sexually immoral and God hates it.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such WERE some of you; but you were washed..."

Galatians 5:19-24 "Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery...just as I have forewarned you, that those who practices such things will not inherit the kingdom of God..."

This is what scripture says of it. Goodness sakes, it is at the very beginnnig of the Bible that ONE MAN, shall leave his family and cleave to ONE WOMAN, and they will become ONE FLESH. You can't be one flesh with one woman or man if you have slept with more than one person. I understand some people did this before salvation, and that even some true Christians have fallen to this themselves. God can restore spiritually what the flesh devours. Take the heid of Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4:3 that you abstain and flee from this sin.

As for the ceremony question, it was ordained by God for man and woman to be wed. I have not read throughout the OT like leviticus to tell you that it is written to have a marriage ceremony. But no where in scripture do you see a man and a woman sneaking off to have sex ordained or blessed by God. Based on tradition in all cultures it is easy to assume that marriage ceremonies were established and upheld by all people. God ordains marriage the right way, the way that glorifies Him in purity and purpose. If ya just go around and have sex with the person you are in a relationship you are not only breaking the purpose He has for sex, but you are destroying His name and being just like the world. Don't be deceived by the sinful mind.

As for being angry with your brother, that is ok. Remember first Jesus wept over Jerusalem before He tore into the temple and started turning tables over. Be broken over his sin the way God is, but also have enough back bone to turn tables over. Marriage and sex are a God ordained thing, He will not let those who treat it flippantly to go undealt with. Marriage and family are God established and even said by some if not most to be 2nd most important thing in life other than salvation.

Read Hebrews 13:4

bibleforlife: Not sure what kind of interpretation you are looking for. The tokens of virginity are the stained cloth that proves this was the first time the woman had ever known a man.

This is describing the provision in the law by which a woman could clear her name if falsely accused of not being a virgin by her new husband. In this culture, marriages were often arranged. Remember how Jacob worked 7 years for Rachel but was given Leah instead. The husband might not like his new bride so well, and he might try to annul the marriage by claiming that when he went in to her he found her to not be a virgin. This would have been a serious charge against her as it would be paramount to declaring her a harlot or at least lewd woman. She could prove his statement wrong by making sure she had preserved this cloth with the proof of this being her first time knowing a man on the cloth. If she could produce the cloth, everyone would know the man was lying and he would forever relinquish any option of divorcing her for any reason. If she could not produce the evidence, she would be stoned for having broken the law by fornication before marriage.

I am not sure what point anonymous was trying to make, but that is what the passage is about.

It would seem to me the most revealing verse is one spoken by Jesus Himself:

Jhn 4:18 For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.

We see here that Jesus saw a difference between the ones she married and the one she lived with.

I have to agree that ceremonies differ according to culture, but in the good old USA we have to be very careful because culture has made common law appear to be marriage. But you can change common law partners like you do socks. There is no real committment, and to prove that, you don't need a letter of divorcement to dissolve it.

There is nothing binding in living together and it isn't biblical according to Jesus' statement above.

We as believers have an obligation to speak the truth in love to those who are living in sin and then to pray that the truth will become clear to them. We are not called to popularity and truth is very popular with the erring. The hard part is we are told to not even eat with those who are brothers and are living ungodly lifestyles. That is the painful part when it is someone we love.