I want to live righteously, but I’m living with my fiance. What should I do?
Question:
I have been feeling guilty lately, I heard about fornication. I live with my fiance of five years and we have a child together. I've given myself completely to God and have been doing things right. But I feel something is not right. My fiance and I decided to solve certain issues that we have in order to get married and have a healthy relationship. I don't want to rush into marriage when we still need issues to solve. I am willing to stop having sex until we get married, but we raised our child together and it will be tough for me to leave the house. I don't know what to do. I have asked God for forgiveness and to understand my situation, that at least I'm trying to make things better.
Can you please help? What do you think?
Answer:
You claim you don't want to rush into marriage, yet you live with a man and have a child together. Have you not be rushing things? Then you turn around and say you aren't certain you want to marry this man because of issues. If those issues are so critical, then why are you living with him and having children with him?
What I suggest is that you stop the pretense and get married. In most places you can do so immediately or within a few days. You can still work on your marriage, and in truth will continue to do so, for the rest of your lives. Until you remove the sin from your life, any claim to be living for God is merely words. "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 homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God" (I Corinthians 6:9-10).
"Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband" (I Corinthians 7:2).
