Hello, my brother,<\/p>\n
I am told your bride price must be paid before marriage and you can get married before your bride price is paid. My question is I want to get married and be clean before God because I have children with my fianc\u00e9 and we are not married. \u00a0My friends have arranged everything for a wedding. My problem is my family wants the bride price or they won’t be a part of the wedding. Is it OK that I marry without them or in their absence because I really need the blessings of marriage?<\/p>\n\t
There is no biblical requirement for a bride price. In every country that has a form of marriage that includes a bride price, there are alternative forms of marriage that do not require a bride price. Therefore, civilly there is no requirement for a bride price either. Traditions are nice, but not when those traditions interfere with obeying God.<\/p>\n
Stop the sinning and go get married as you should have done before living with this man. I’m sorry that your family puts money over righteousness, but it is their choice. Your choice has to be to live righteously before God.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Hello, my brother, I am told your bride price must be paid before marriage and you can get married before your bride price is paid. My question is I want to get married and be clean before God because I have children with my fianc\u00e9 and we are not married. \u00a0My friends have arranged…<\/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,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[1454,1572,1453,64],"class_list":["post-47773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-dowry","tag-fornication","tag-lobola","tag-marriage"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":46257,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-paying-lobola-equivalent-to-marriage\/","url_meta":{"origin":47773,"position":0},"title":"Is paying lobola equivalent to marriage?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Greetings, I would like to know if lobola (bride price) is equivalent to marriage with regards to sexual relations.\u00a0 I have recently paid lobola (bride price) \u00a0but not the full amount, I am saving money and will pay the full price next and then get married.\u00a0 My curiosity is:\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":21597,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-a-child-bride-really-married\/","url_meta":{"origin":47773,"position":1},"title":"Is a child bride really married?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 5, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"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\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":46198,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/am-i-really-married-since-the-marriage-traditions-in-my-community-are-contrary-to-gods-laws\/","url_meta":{"origin":47773,"position":2},"title":"Am I really married since the marriage traditions in my community are contrary to God’s laws?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear Brother, Thank you for the important site you have created in order to answer those questions that affect Christians' lives. I live in a community where people are influenced by traditional superstition and idolatry. I found out that our tradition of marriage is as far as heaven from\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":79687,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-get-married-when-the-bride-to-be-is-pregnant\/","url_meta":{"origin":47773,"position":3},"title":"Is it wrong to get married when the bride-to-be is pregnant?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 22, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day, preacher, I have a question for you and need your help. I met a lady I love, and we plan to get married next month. The date is set, and flyers are distributed. Unfortunately, we found out that she is pregnant. Should we proceed with the marriage,\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":58934,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-question-about-dowries\/","url_meta":{"origin":47773,"position":4},"title":"A Question about Dowries","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 11, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question bothering me and this issue is about tearing apart one of our congregations here in Nigeria. Please, is parental consent considered to be marriage; that is, the cohabitation of a man and a woman without the payment of a bride price or dowry? Since examples\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":34345,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/before-becoming-a-christian-i-committed-fornication-many-times-my-preacher-says-i-need-to-wait-before-getting-married-isnt-it-better-to-marry-now\/","url_meta":{"origin":47773,"position":5},"title":"Before becoming a Christian, I committed fornication many times. My preacher says I need to wait before getting married. Isn’t it better to marry now?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 7, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ. I write this e-mail with great shame over myself. I committed fornication with a girl who was not my girlfriend and got her pregnant. The girl whom I got pregnant knew that I already had a girlfriend whom I was planning to\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\/47773","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=47773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47773\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}