living together before marriage
What does the Bible say about living together before marriage? These are the passages readers found most helpful — tap any citation to read it in context.
19 passages · most helpful first
4May marriage be honorable in every way, and may the marriage bed be immaculate. For God will judge fornicators and adulterers.
3For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from fornication, 4that each one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor, 5not in passions of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God,
2But, because of fornication, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.
1Now concerning the things about which you wrote to me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. 2But, because of fornication, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. 3A husband should fulfill his obligation to his wife, and a wife should also act similarly toward her husband. 4It is not the wife, but the husband, who has power over her body. But, similarly also, it is not the husband, but the wife, who has power over his body. 5So, do not fail in your obligations to one another, except perhaps by consent, for a limited time, so that you may empty yourselves for prayer. And then, return together again, lest Satan tempt you by means of your abstinence. 6But I am saying this, neither as an indulgence, nor as a commandment.
18Flee from fornication. Every sin whatsoever that a man commits is outside of the body, but whoever fornicates, sins against his own body.
18Flee from fornication. Every sin whatsoever that a man commits is outside of the body, but whoever fornicates, sins against his own body. 19Or do you not know that your bodies are the Temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20For you have been bought at a great price. Glorify and carry God in your body.
5For know and understand this: no one who is a fornicator, or lustful, or rapacious (for these are a kind of service to idols) holds an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
28But I say to you, that anyone who will have looked at a woman, so as to lust after her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
24For this reason, a man shall leave behind his father and mother, and he shall cling to his wife; and the two shall be as one flesh. 25Now they were both naked: Adam, of course, and his wife. And they were not ashamed.
24For this reason, a man shall leave behind his father and mother, and he shall cling to his wife; and the two shall be as one flesh.
22So then, flee from the desires of your youth, yet truly, pursue justice, faith, hope, charity, and peace, along with those who call upon the Lord from a pure heart.
19Or do you not know that your bodies are the Temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20For you have been bought at a great price. Glorify and carry God in your body.
3For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from fornication,
3For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from fornication, 4that each one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor, 5not in passions of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God, 6and that no one should overwhelm or circumvent his brother in business. For the Lord is the vindicator of all these things, just as we have preached and testified to you. 7For God has not called us to impurity, but to sanctification. 8And so, whoever despises these teachings, does not despise man, but God, who has even provided his Holy Spirit within us.
16Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and return here.” 17The woman responded and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her: “You have spoken well, in saying, ‘I have no husband.’ 18For you have had five husbands, but he whom you have now is not your husband. You have spoken this in truth.”
39A woman is bound under the law for as long as her husband lives. But if her husband has died, she is free. She may marry whomever she wishes, but only in the Lord.
32But I say to you, that anyone who will have dismissed his wife, except in the case of fornication, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever will have married her who has been dismissed commits adultery.
21For from within, from the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22thefts, avarice, wickedness, deceitfulness, homosexuality, an evil eye, blasphemy, self-exaltation, foolishness. 23All these evils proceed from within and pollute a man.”
22Abstain from every kind of evil.