Can you marry for reasons other than love?
Question:
Is it biblical to marry for reasons outside of love? For example for children, physical desire, status, family pressure, obligation, it is time, etc?
Answer:
So many people think that love is something that happens to a person when the truth is that love is something a person chooses to give. That is why Christians are commanded: "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35). People think of love as a mushy feeling that they can't ignore, but God talks of love as how you treat another person (I Corinthians 13:4-8).
It is perfectly possible to choose to marry a person and because you are marrying that person you choose to love that person. A good example of this is Isaac and Rebekah. They did not meet until their wedding day, for that matter Rebekah had agreed to marry Isaac sight unseen (Genesis 24), and yet they were deeply in love -- to the point that others noticed. "Now it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked through a window, and saw, and there was Isaac, showing endearment to Rebekah his wife" (Genesis 26:8).
