Thread: What came first - consummate marriage, or sex?
Admin
What came first - consummate marriage, or sex?
Posted : 1 Jul, 2012 09:49 PM
I mean the following as part of our genuine desire to understand God's word. No troll intended.
Here's 1 Cor 6:15-17 (which comes before a passage mentioned in another thread, where a brain-wave struck):
"Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, �The two will become one flesh." But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit."
This just occurred to me: what if that also means that such unity with a prostitute isn't premarital sex, but a marriage ceremony in itself, with the two becoming one flesh? Surely there's a reason why a marriage isn't said to be consummated (that, in a sense, it isn't complete) until those wedded are having sex. I remember that for Joseph, breaking off his engagement with Mary would have meant getting a divorce, yet that the unreached milestone mentioned in Matt. 1:18-19 alongside their marriage proper is their coming together.
One might say that for all the sex a Christian might have with a prostitute, there may be no marriage to make consummate in the first place. If, then, that's the case, how could sex between single Christians be a bad thing?
Maybe there isn't really such a thing as premarital sex. Maybe this matters, maybe it doesn't. Maybe I've missed something. Any thoughts?
Youre very welcome. Like the name? lol It is french for Apostle. A derrivation of the word also happens to be my great-grandmother's maiden name, Postell.
No way! Thats what I've been trying to say. Sex before marriage is wrong in the sight to God n men which definitely could be understood that having had sex before marriage does not qualify you as married but a sinner.
Bloodnok shared ~ @GodsJude: Thanks for that, though I'm wondering if what we learn later in the NT shows us a bigger picture.
*** :waving:...Your welcome...would you please share and elaborate a lil on what we learn later in the NT...I'd like to see the bigger picture you are wondering about...lets keep the conversation-discussion going...it s really good to have a decent discussion... =0)...xo
@Apostelle: Nice :-). I feel sorry for the schoolkids bullied for having that surname, though ("hyuck, Postell's going postal, hyuck, hyuck")
@CuriousAisha: Doesn't it? For the sake of a biblical understanding, what of scripture makes you say that? (In answer to what I put forward here from 1 Cor. 6 and Matt. 1)
And yeah, it is sad :S.
@GodsJude: Something I think is new to learn in the NT is the way that Paul takes sex between unmarrieds, and then talks about the couple in terms of scripture that describes marriage. I don't see anywhere in the OT the idea that sex between an otherwise single guy & girl makes them married, and I need to rely on that NT thinking to make that connection. That's the broadening of the biblical picture of marriage of male and female that I'm wondering about.
Update! I bumped into Deuteronomy 22... here's vv.28-29:
"If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, he shall pay her father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives."
I think that this does NOT mean that as Christians we should respond to this situation so, just because Deuteronomy says to - after all, Jesus re-interpreted the Mosaic law (no longer any animal sacrifice, for instance).
What I am trying to see is whether or not this "sex entailing marriage" thing is a part of God's established truth about marriage that Israel may have been to live in light of like this.
What do you guys think? Maybe the Deut. passage isn't relevant? Or that there is other scripture that contradicts/supports this thing?
(This whole thread does feel like straw splitting, but it's new to me. Thanks for the patience of anyone who reads through all this, let alone responds!)
In the context of 1cor 6:15-18, if we read from 13-18...the kind of sex mentioned here is FORNICATION=EXTRA-MARITAL SEX, and Paul is warning them for that! Its a sin! (18b). So, in no way there is marriage in itself.
Phew! Blood... You are right. I feel like searching a needle in a hay stack on this thread. It's very deep and we really need time of study and medidation to get to the point. Been very busy as well but am following you. Will get back on the Deut. Quote later:)
