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What does the Bible say about living together not married?

Bible Topic · WEB

The Bible teaches that sexual intimacy belongs within the covenant of marriage, so couples who live together in a sexual relationship without being married are called to repent and pursue holiness. Hebrews 13:4 honors marriage and warns that God judges sexual immorality, while 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 calls believers to control their bodies in sanctification and honor. First Corinthians 6:18-20 reminds Christians that their bodies belong to Christ and are temples of the Holy Spirit. Scripture also offers grace, not despair: 1 John 1:9 assures those who confess their sins that God forgives and cleanses them. Christians should therefore seek wise pastoral counsel, establish clear boundaries, and either marry or live separately in obedience to Christ.

Top passages, ranked by readers

Rankings: OpenBible.info Topical Bible (CC BY) · Scripture: World English Bible

  • Hebrews 13:4 8 votes

    Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the bed be undefiled: but God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.

  • 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 5 votes

    [3] For this is the will of God: your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality, [4] that each one of you know how to possess himself of his own vessel in sanctification and honor, [5] not in the passion of lust, even as the Gentiles who don't know God;

  • 1 Corinthians 6:18 4 votes

    Flee sexual immorality! "Every sin that a man does is outside the body," but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.

  • Galatians 5:19-21 4 votes

    [19] Now the works of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness, [20] idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, rivalries, divisions, heresies, [21] envyings, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these; of which I forewarn you, even as I also forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

  • 1 John 1:9 3 votes

    If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

  • 1 Corinthians 7:2 3 votes

    But, because of sexual immoralities, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.

  • 1 Corinthians 6:18-20 3 votes

    [18] Flee sexual immorality! "Every sin that a man does is outside the body," but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. [19] Or don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have from God? You are not your own, [20] for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

  • 1 Thessalonians 5:22 3 votes

    Abstain from every form of evil.

  • 1 Corinthians 6:13 3 votes

    "Foods for the belly, and the belly for foods," but God will bring to nothing both it and them. But the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.

  • John 4:16-18 3 votes

    [16] Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." [17] The woman answered, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You said well, 'I have no husband,' [18] for you have had five husbands; and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly."

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