Am I married?

Question: OK. Well, let me provide some background information. I am a believer. I met a girl who is also a believer.  We became boyfriend and girlfriend. During the relationship, we would talk about marriage and getting married and the intent of the relationship was to one day get married.  We would say things like…

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Whom do I marry, my current girlfriend or my former girlfriend?

Question: I have just been reading most of the answers under the topic of marriage and I have to say first of all thank you for answering questions from a biblical perspective. It’s all we need. My question is as follows: I got an older woman pregnant who is in her thirties. I am five…

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Are prenuptial agreements biblical?

Question: What is or is not biblical regarding a pre-marital agreement for handling money and possessions in the event of a separation or divorce? Answer: “And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a…

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Grains of Sand

by Sam Stinson “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in…

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A Marriage in Decline

by Steven Harper Throughout the Bible, God uses the analogy of marriage to describe the relationship of God with His people. In the Old Testament, God spoke of how He was “married to” the ones of Judah (Jeremiah 3:14) and “was a husband to” the Israelites (Jeremiah 31:32), and even used the analogous picture of putting away and giving a…

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Should Wives Call Their Husbands “Lord”?

by Sam Stinson “For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening” (I Peter 3:5-6, ESV). Someone suggested that if…

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Is it wrong for the husband to cook instead of the wife?

Question: Is it wrong for the husband to cook instead of the wife? It appears that it is the role of the wife, but at the same time, we see that men clearly cooked in the Old Testament, such as Esau was told to cook by his father. I know you might think, “It’s in…

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Is love enough for marriage?

Question: Is the love between a man and a woman, apart from the mutual agreement of both families enough to bind them? I’m asking this question on behalf of my cousin who wants to go on and marry a Muslim girl irrespective of the lack of agreement between the two families of different religions. They…

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Can homosexuals have a godly marriage?

Question: I just have to say that when I stumbled upon La Vista Church of Christ’s sermon on “Who Are You Going To Marry?” while searching for something similar, I found it quite terrifying. As a Christian who is engaged to be married, I am, for the first time, having second thoughts about marriage at…

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How do I get out of a forced marriage?

Question: I was forcefully married; there was no court wedding. Now, I no longer want the marriage. What do I do? Answer: A statement doesn’t establish the truth. You said you were forced into marriage, but you didn’t say how this oddity happened. You even imply that you had in the past accepted the marriage,…

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Does a wife have to stay with a hurtful and abusive husband?

Question: I don’t know what to do. I am a member of the church and I know that I have to be submissive to my husband, but he does some things that aren’t very nice. He only wants oral and anal sex. He says that I have to do it because the Bible commands it.…

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What if your wife told you she was HIV positive after the marriage?

Question: A friend of mine and I discussed your book “Preparation for a Lifetime” and asked me this question: “If on the night after your wedding your wife tells you that she’s HIV positive, what would you do”? I was dumbfounded for some time but later gave my own opinion anyway. What is your own…

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Can a woman only become spiritually mature in marriage?

Question: I have heard it expressed before by a past preacher in a church of Christ that he did not consider single women to be mature in Christ.  The implication being that all women must marry if they are to obtain maturity spiritually.  This perplexes me and I find myself coming back to his statement…

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I want to get married, but I have no money. Can you help me?

Question: Thank you for the advice you gave in response to questions people have asked about how to avoid sexual immorality. According to one of your statements, you advise people to marry in order to avoid such sin. The issue is that I’ve reached the age to marry, but I have no money to accomplish that.…

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Husband of One Wife

by Carl A. Allen Sometime in 1974 or 1975, while living in Colorado, I was invited to attend a gathering of brethren who believe in the “no Bible Class” arrangement. We met at a prominent restaurant for a noon meal. When I arrived, I noticed the table was filled with two seats empty, one in…

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Should I ask my girlfriend to marry me when we tend to argue a lot?

Question: I have a question which you may know a little about. In my relationship with my girlfriend, we tend to argue a lot. She will say something and I will explode or vice versa. This has left me without peace and asking if this relationship is God’s will. I wanted to ask my girlfriend…

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What does becoming “one flesh” mean?

Question: What does this mean: ”For this reason a man shall leave his father and leave his mother and be joined to his wife and they shall become one flesh”? Answer: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). This…

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If a virgin marries a non-virgin, will he be condemned to hell?

Question: If a pure man marries a woman who he thinks is a pure woman (virgin), and he finds out later she wasn’t a virgin when they married, is he condemned to hell because it wasn’t a pure and holy marriage, even though he is a member of the true New Testament church? Answer: God…

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How do I stop treating my wife so badly?

Question: We’ve been together for nearly ten years and for the past several years I’ve been treating my wife very badly. I say bad things to her and we just don’t feel happy around each other anymore. She seems like she’s afraid of me. I still love her and I know I can’t live without…

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I found lots of useful material on marital relationships on your site

Question: I live in the Philippines and am a devout Catholic Christian. I am writing this to thank you for your web site. I accidentally found it. I was looking for an article or materials to be used in my presentation related to relationships specifically between a husband and wife. There is a lot of very useful…

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Doesn’t sex create a marriage?

Question: Hello, it’s me, the same girl who had sent you a message before asking about sex without marriage. I know God’s laws, and I know he made them in order to keep us safe and happy. The thing is, the person and I have already done it, we’ve had sex. Now Jesus said that when…

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Is it God’s will that I marry?

Question: I am planning on engaging my girlfriend, God willing, in a few months, though I haven’t told her obviously. But I have a nagging feeling in my heart. I don’t know whether it’s fear or what it is. So I prayed to God asking Him if it’s His will I marry this gal. I…

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What do I do? My boyfriend doesn’t want to get married and I do

Question: My boyfriend and I live together. We’ve been living together for two years. He doesn’t want to get married. I do. Also, I am Christian, he is agnostic. I have tried to talk to him about God, but he wants proof. I don’t know what to do. When we first got together, I was…

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So You Married the Wrong Person?

by Tanner Campbell The statements: “I don’t love you anymore,” and “I think I married the wrong person” we all recognize. They are commonly said at the end of a failed marriage. It is no secret that many marriages fail in the world and a number of them fail among members of the church. Did…

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Is it wrong for a Christian to marry a non-believer?

Question: In I Corinthians 7:12-14, it doesn’t mean a Christian marrying an unbeliever. You need to see the background and the circumstances Paul wrote this letter. Actually the problem in Corinth is that after marriage a husband or wife accepted Christ. Because of the desire to serve Christ, the believing wife or husband thought they…

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Can a married couple talk dirty during sex?

Question: Hi, I have read through a lot of your Answered Questions and wanted to throw one out at you. Do you think it’s improper for a married Christian couple to “talk dirty” during sex, using words and language they would ordinarily not use in daily conversation? (If no one else is around and the…

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Doesn’t a marriage license mean the government controls marriages?

Question: You said: “They imagine all sorts of nonsense regarding giving up rights, but the reality is that the government is serving as a repository of the covenant.” License is a prior restraint. It presumes that the activity is not a right but stems from the licensor (government in this case), is illegal otherwise and…

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The Key to Better Marriages

by Edwin L. Crozier via Gospel Power, Vol. 16, No. 34, August 23, 2009. One thing I have learned about the Bible and marriage is that some of the passages that will help us the most in our marriage were not written specifically about marriage. The passage that will help our marriages (and all other…

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Do you know someone who will marry us without a state marriage license?

Question: I would like to get married without the state’s license and with a preacher, of course. Could you please help me find a preacher that would marry in my state?  I would also like to obtain more information on this subject.  Could I get some more information on how to be married legally or…

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Is a child bride really married?

Question: Recently I was participating in a discussion with several Christians regarding biblical divorce. One of the group members brought up the marriage of young girls in Third World cultures, such as Afghanistan or Pakistan. From what we have read these girls are sold into marriage by their fathers or extended families. One instance made…

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Why is my husband so uncaring?

Question: I too am a wife who feels unloved.  My question is, why do men, who give so much loving attention to a woman when they are courting her, stop loving her in the same way as the years go on?  We have many children, and the youngest has severe cerebral palsy. When she was born, my…

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