Sorry to be "late" in this thread. All sex outside of marriage, is fornication. Clinical studies (secular) support the idea that sex before marriage, reduces success
in marriage.
The concept of "premarital sex", is really a fallicy. It's "extramarital sex" --- it is likely that a sexual relationship will end
without marriage (breakup).
Marriage is based on "commitment"; and that's what the "paper", is. For those who say "We don't need the paper; we're married already before God" (I'm thinking of a specific colleague); but if that is TRUE,
then there is no reason to AVOID the "paper". True to what I just said,
that colleague is now permanently separated from his unfiance.
What is "love"? The best definition is 1Cor13. If a relationship is based on
real love, then each person is
selfless; and
intensely desires for their mate to receive all the honor, respect, and fulfillment he or she deserves ("deserves", reflecting
the desire to honor the other, which true love instills.)
Quote:
Sexual compatibility is important, so I'm very glad it was tested before we married, possibly finding out the hard way that there were issues in that department.
This is one of the saddest things I've heard;
and I've heard it many times, not just here. Physically --- 100% of Humans are compatible. The very use of the word "compatibility",
reveals "past history". A person who has learned a certain path,
looks for another person who has a similar "learning".
Two people who are virgins when they marry --- have NO path, no history (and no "ghosts" haunting their thoughts).
They learn the path, TOGETHER, nothing they do is "wrong".
Sex is the physical expression of
emotional intimacy. The purpose of "courting", is to build the emotional; on which the physical is based. If it's built on "physical", then the foundation is rotten.
Sexual compatibility is EMOTIONAL; when two people connect on emotional and spiritual levels, then the physical will "work".
Virginity is a rare gift nowadays; a virgin can offer
complete commitment; the receiver KNOWS that he or she
is the only one. There is no "past fantasy" or "memory", or "comparison"; she/he will know that
their mate belongs to them, completely.
I am relatively old; never married. But marriage is a desire; in my heart is the image of my wife --- and the most important thing to me,
is focusing on what I have to BE, so that I will deserve what kind of woman she is. In plain English, if I want a QUALITY wife,
then I have to already be a good husband ("good catch"), when she meets me.
....and she will know that all these years, I have saved myself for HER.
Before she was there,
there was the dream of her. By faith,
I am already married to her. How can I be unfaithful?
Yet --- all this talk, requires "foundations"; Humans do, as they are; I can talk of "chastity" and "purity" ---
but to people who do not know Christ as I do, they will have no reference to understand; they will think me "silly". So it is meaningless really to speak to people of "fornication" or "purity". If I teach them of JESUS,
then He-in-their-hearts, will teach them exactly what I have been taught.
He is the Creator; He made sex. He made me --- He knows (and wants) what is best for me.
...and for that wife that I have not yet met...