What does a very obedient Christian couple do when they are living together and willfully obeying God and not having sex, who desperately want to be married but cannot due to one of them being on SSI? The other person cannot support the other person and that money that is given every month, even though not much, is helping tremendously and cannot marry. We want to honor God and do everything to please Him. What advice could you give us? We cannot easily find a preacher to marry us because they are in bed with the state.<\/p>\n\t
Preachers, like all Christians, must obey the laws of the government so long as they don’t conflict with God’s laws. “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves<\/em>” (Romans 13:1-2).<\/p>\n From what you state you value money over being married. It isn’t that you cannot be married, it is that you don’t want to live at a reduced income.<\/p>\n From what I have read of the Social Security benefits, a married couple’s benefits are reduced, but not eliminated. You would have to talk to someone in Social Security to find out what the impact of being married would have on the benefits received. I also noted that benefits in many states balance out the Social Security benefits, so a decrease in one may be taken up by another. Again, you would have to talk to an expert who is familiar with the laws in your area to find out what would happen.<\/p>\n If you want to honor God, then you will obey His laws. “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do the things which I say?<\/em>” (Luke 6:46). I don’t recommend men and women living together even if they claim they are not having sex. The temptation is too great. If you value money over marriage, then live in separate homes. If you want to live together then get married and budget the impact on your income so that you can avoid going into debt. If necessary, one or both of you may need to find a way of earning more income. Playing at the borders of sin is not right.<\/p>\n\t Thank you for your reply. I would have agreed with you until the laws now allow gay marriage. What you’re saying makes sense until you throw that factor in. According to this line of thinking, God blesses whatever the state laws are. If that’s so then a gay couple is now blessed by God, and He approves of this union. I don’t believe that for one second.<\/p>\n I am desperately looking for work and have zero unemployment. The little bit of money coming in is all we have. I highly doubt God would want His children living in the street. We are trying to get our act together, but until then, we want to obey God by getting married.<\/p>\n\t As I stated before, all Christians must obey the laws of the government so long as they don’t conflict with God’s laws. Homosexuality is against God’s law. Man can “legalize” it, but it remains a sin. God always trumps man. Marriage between a man and woman remains legal and it is according to God’s law. Men never made marriage right, it was already right because of God.<\/p>\n I’m sorry about your situation, but you should never have moved in with a man to whom you are not married. It is basic common sense. If you want to obey God, you have to do it on God’s terms and not when you find it convenient to follow God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: What does a very obedient Christian couple do when they are living together and willfully obeying God and not having sex, who desperately want to be married but cannot due to one of them being on SSI? The other person cannot support the other person and that money that is given every month, even…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[655,64],"class_list":["post-37355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-living-together","tag-marriage"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":41585,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-my-wife-divorces-me-and-then-marries-again-does-that-free-me-to-marry-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":37355,"position":0},"title":"If my wife divorces me and then marries again, does that free me to marry again?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 15, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have always believed that man's written divorce means nothing to God.\u00a0 And you reinforce my thinking when you mention that God is the one who decides when the marriage covenant ends.\u00a0 Doesn't this mean that even though she wants a divorce (by man's laws), and I do not,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39603,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-the-vows-i-made-in-my-head-marry-me-to-someone-else\/","url_meta":{"origin":37355,"position":1},"title":"Did the vows I made in my head marry me to someone else?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 17, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi! Before I married the love of my life, I would read stories online where the reader would marry either a character or a real person in the stories. I cannot remember if any of these stories included vows that I may have read and given in my head\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41913,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-i-marry-the-non-christian-im-living-with\/","url_meta":{"origin":37355,"position":2},"title":"Should I marry the non-Christian I’m living with?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 18, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I am having a few issues. I fell in love with a non-Christian and planned to marry her. I fully believed that God would save her and she would become Christian. I love her but after my pastor kept pushing me not to marry her because she was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40967,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/even-though-i-am-no-longer-a-catholic-my-boyfriends-mother-insists-that-he-cannot-marry-a-catholic-or-a-former-catholic\/","url_meta":{"origin":37355,"position":3},"title":"Even though I am no longer a Catholic, my boyfriend’s mother insists that he cannot marry a Catholic or a former Catholic.","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear Minister, I have just read your page regarding the question, \"Do you think a Protestant can marry a Catholic?\" It answered some facets of my own question, but it is not exactly what I need to know. I was born and raised a Catholic, but never felt any\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":81514,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-we-get-married-will-the-sin-stop\/","url_meta":{"origin":37355,"position":4},"title":"If we get married, will the sin stop?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 11, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Do you really answer questions? I have something bothering me. Can you help me with it? I met a woman who has been divorced for a year. I intend to marry her, but the fact is that we have had sexual relations before marriage, and we are living together\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32837,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-do-you-think-of-the-president-supporting-gay-marriage\/","url_meta":{"origin":37355,"position":5},"title":"What do you think of the President supporting gay marriage?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I know you're aware of the Obama situation about passing the gay marriage bill. I had a conversation on Facebook about it and everyone -- the majority are Christian -- agree. They say he's doing his job, people have the right to be happy, gay people are hurting no\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37355\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Question:<\/h2>\n
Answer:<\/h2>\n