My spouse was engaged to a woman for a month and a half. They were sexually active before and after they became engaged. They were not faithful to each other during the engagement and decided to break the engagement. He has since repented for his sin (been baptized, etc.) and is living a godly life. At a later time, we married. I know that our engagement today is not the same as the betrothal (in which they were considered married) in the Bible. In God’s eyes, is our marriage okay (not adulterous)?<\/p>\n\t
The basis of a marriage is the covenant two people enter into before God. “Yet you say, “For what reason?” Because the LORD has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, with whom you have dealt treacherously; yet she is your companion and your wife by covenant<\/em>” (Malachi 2:14). In ancient days, the engagement period involved a covenant, which was followed by a second covenant at the time of the actual marriage. Today we typically only have the covenant at the time of the marriage.<\/p>\n Therefore, your husband at one time was a fornicator; that is, he had sex outside of marriage. The fact that he was having sex with someone he thought he intended to marry doesn’t change this, nor does it change because he was two-timing this woman. He did not break a marriage covenant because he had not entered into one at the time.<\/p>\n Even though he was a fornicator, he changed, as did some of the Corinthians. “And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God<\/em>” (I Corinthians 6:11). Without that commitment to change, I would have warned you before marriage to take a second, third, and fourth thought about whether he was marriageable material. People who freely engage in sex generally have a hard time keeping commitments. But he has changed and you are married. So enjoy your time on earth together. You have not sinned by marrying this man. “Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life which He has given you under the sun, all your days of vanity; for that is your portion in life, and in the labor which you perform under the sun<\/em>” (Ecclesiastes 9:9).<\/p>\n\t Thank you for replying.\u00a0 He is a wonderful, godly husband and a fabulous father.\u00a0 He is proof that the gospel can change us!\u00a0 I also thank you for your website.\u00a0 I have always wanted there to be a forum for people to ask real questions and get biblical answers without feeling dumb or unspiritual for wondering.\u00a0 May God bless your efforts and your life!<\/p>\n\t Thank you for your kind words. I do what I can and it has been fun over the years. It keeps me on my toes and helps the local group because I’m more “in tune” with current issues around the world. It helps the members here be prepared to answer questions they run across.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: My spouse was engaged to a woman for a month and a half. They were sexually active before and after they became engaged. They were not faithful to each other during the engagement and decided to break the engagement. He has since repented for his sin (been baptized, etc.) and is living a godly…<\/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":[424,1572,64],"class_list":["post-8375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-consequences","tag-fornication","tag-marriage"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":44852,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-an-engaged-couple-bound-to-each-other-just-as-if-they-are-married\/","url_meta":{"origin":8375,"position":0},"title":"Is an engaged couple bound to each other just as if they are married?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 13, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi I read an article on your website that gave me the impression that you are a God-fearing man who wants to make choices based on God's words. I am troubled with a problem, and I need advice. I got engaged some time ago, but my fiancee left me.\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":9625,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-engagements-required-before-a-marriage-can-take-place\/","url_meta":{"origin":8375,"position":1},"title":"Are engagements required before a marriage can take place?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 29, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I see\u00a0the Scripture and proof\u00a0that sex does not make the marriage and that there is fornication without marriages being made in the act.\u00a0 However, I was reading the other day and came across a person who said that we are to let the Bible define marriage.\u00a0 He pointed out\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":37394,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-divorce-only-allowed-during-the-engagement\/","url_meta":{"origin":8375,"position":2},"title":"Is divorce only allowed during the engagement?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 27, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Regarding\u00a0How could a woman in an adulterous marriage have the right to remarry after a divorce?\u00a0I believe there is something very important you are missing. Matthew was written to a\u00a0Jewish\u00a0readership, Mark and Luke were written for a\u00a0Gentile readership. As you know from the nativity story, Joseph was betrothed 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":[]},{"id":44946,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/my-daughter-is-engaged-to-a-man-that-i-found-out-is-still-married-what-do-i-do\/","url_meta":{"origin":8375,"position":3},"title":"My daughter is engaged to a man that I found out is still married. What do I do?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 24, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: This is a complicated situation.\u00a0 The information I have comes from the young man. This young man got a young girl pregnant.\u00a0 They were together off and on for a couple of years.\u00a0 They applied for a marriage license but did not follow through.\u00a0 They applied the second time\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":7231,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-we-confess-our-fornication\/","url_meta":{"origin":8375,"position":4},"title":"Should we confess our fornication?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 9, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day sir. By God's grace, we are a couple who decided to get married. Our church's marriage committee has some rules that intending couples need to follow before marriage. We have known each other since last year but things got serious towards marriage beginning to this year. We\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":16434,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-sex-before-marriage-a-sin-for-a-couple-who-divorced-their-prior-spouses\/","url_meta":{"origin":8375,"position":5},"title":"Is sex before marriage a sin for a couple who divorced their prior spouses?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 4, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My partner and I are both divorced. Both of our previous partners committed adultery. We are engaged and find it difficult to find any reference in the Bible to our situation regarding sex before marriage. Could you help, please? Answer: You are currently not married. You only have a\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\/8375","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=8375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8375\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Response:<\/h2>\n
Answer:<\/h2>\n