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Marrying young has become a downright countercultural move. It defies our cultural definition of marriageas a capstone that completes the life of the autonomous self but, when supported by a loving church, has the potential to put biblical ideas about the formative institution into practice.
Scripture Focus:
1 Corinthians 7:1-8, Genesis 2:19-25, Romans 12:9-21
Study Outline
PART 1 Identify the Current Issue Background information on the current issue is read aloud by the leader or participant. Discussion Starter questions encourage conversation. (It is not necessary to address every question.) PART 2 Discover the Eternal Principles Scripture helps the group reflect biblically and theologically on the current issue. Teaching Points focus on different Scripture passages, each point concluding with a set of questions. PART 3 Apply Your Findings An activity or additional questions help make practical the ideas just discussed. ARTICLE HANDOUT The Case for Early Marriage, by Mark Regnerus, Christianity Today.
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PART 1
Youve probably heard it before, and maybe youve even said it: Theyre a great couple, but theyre just so young. Why the rush? Often we have a certain idea about when, exactly, people should get married. Mark Regnerus points out in his article The Case for Early Marriage that the evangelical focus on abstinence has created unhealthy attitudes about marriage. We focus on exercising self-control until we feel we have achieved a certain amount. In doing this, we have created marriage in our own image, rather than allowing it its rightful place as a formative institution. Regnerus suggests that the reasons we give for not marrying youngfinancial insecurity, immaturity, a poor match, marrying for sex, and unrealistic expectationscan and should be turned into strengths when the church surrounds and supports a young couple.
Discussion Starters:
Have you known a couple you felt got married too young? Why did you feel this way? What factors demonstrate a couples readiness? How does your church address singleness, abstinence, and marriage? Are there programs in place to support young couples? How might you do better at that?
PART 2
Teaching point 1: Purpose: Our physical desires were created for a reason.
Read 1 Corinthians 7:1-8. We tend to see sex as a problem, as something we must ignore until the more important, practical aspects of our relationships are in order. But in doing this we ignore the fact that, as Regnerus puts it, Desire for sex is intended to promote marriage. There is a reason our physical desires peak when they do; the fertility and energy of the young are best suited for raising children. God created us this way in his wisdom, as Paul points out in this passage. Of course, Paul also states that it is better for men not to marry, so they can devote their time and energy fully to Gods work. But this model only works with incredible self-control, and is not for most. Marriage seems to be the model God has in mind for the 90% of all couples who have sex before marriage. Yes, we are to control our urges. But we are not to ignore them, either, because to do so is to battle our Creators reproductive designs to be fruitful and multiply (Gen. 1:28) in the context of marriage. Have you experienced a clash between abstinence rhetoric and marriage rhetoric? How might these two work together? What do these verses tell us about the purpose of marriage? Does Pauls concession at all diminish the calling of marriage? What verses respond to this?
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PART 2
Teaching point 2: Expectations: Marriage is a formative institution rooted in the covenant between God, man, and woman.
Read Genesis 2:19-25. Underlying our current views on marriage is the assumption that we must wait until we have reached a certain point in our individual development. As Regnerus puts it, we now think of marriage like those outside the churchas a capstone that completes the life of the autonomous self. We need to be perfect, and our spouse needs to be perfect. If we wait long enough, we believe, this just might happen. But these confused expectations skew the nature and purpose of marriage. As we see in this passage, man and wife are so intimately linked they can call each other bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh (v. 23). And this relationship is not about romance as much as it is about commitment. Because it serves as a symbol of Gods covenantal faithfulness to his people, and is recognized and sealed by God himself (Mark 10:8-9), it transcends the autonomous self to create something wholly new; as a result, we must be changed. Because the marriage covenant reflects Gods covenant with the church (Eph 5:23), our understanding of each relationship can inform the other as we seek to be formed by both. What does the imagery of marriage depicted here tell us about the marriage relationship? What is the reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife (v. 24)? In what ways does the marriage relationship reflect Gods covenant with his people? How can our understanding of each influence the other?
Teaching point 3: Practice: The church should rally to teach and support marriage.
Read Romans 12:9-21. Marriage is difficult, no matter what age the couple. But early marriage has its own set of obstacles that often contribute to their failure. Rather than warn young couples of the dangers of early marriage, and then leave them to fend for themselves, the church has an opportunity to display the brotherly love to which this passage calls it by offering godly counsel and support. In this we see an example of Gods covenant relationship with his bride, the church, as he provides her with support, and the church in response demonstrates her love by maintaining her purity (see 2 Corinthians 11:2, Revelation 19:7-8). What is the churchs responsibility to young couples? What might a loving response to a struggling young couple look like? How can the church help marriages succeed? Why do you think we sometimes fail to show young couples the kind of love described in this passage?
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PART 3
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risen from 21 for women and 23 for men in 1970 to where it stands today: 26 for women and 28 for men, the highest figures since the Census Bureau started collecting data about it. Thats five additional, long years of peak sexual interest and fertility. (And remember, those numbers are medians: for every man marrying at 22, theres one marrying for the first time at 34.) Evangelicals tend to marry slightly earlier than other Americans, but not by much. Many of them plan to marry in their mid-20s.Yet waiting for sex until then feels far too long to most of them. And I am suggesting that when people wait until their mid-to-late 20s to marry, it is unreasonable to expect them to refrain from sex. Its battling our Creators reproductive designs. The data dont lie. Our sexual behavior patternsthe kind I documented in 2007 in Forbidden Fruitgive us away. Very few wait long for sex. Meanwhile, womens fertility is more or less fixed, yet Americans are increasingly ignoring it during their 20s, only to beg and pray to reclaim it in their 30s and 40s. Where Are All the Christian Men? Unfortunately, American evangelicals have another demographic concern: The ratio of devoutly Christian young women to men is far from even. Among evangelical churchgoers, there are about three single women for every two single men. This is the elephant in the corner of almost every congregationa shortage of young Christian men. Try counting singles in your congregation next Sunday. Evangelicals make much of avoiding being unequally yoked, but the fact that there are far more spiritually mature young women out there than men makes this bit of advice difficult to follow. No congregational program or mens retreat in the Rocky Mountains will solve this. If she decides to marry, one in three women has no choice but to marry down in terms of Christian maturity. Many of the hopeful ones wait, watching their late 20s and early 30s arrive with no husband. When the persistent longing turns to deep disappointment, some decide that they didnt really want to marry after all. Given this unfavorable ratio, and the plain fact that men are, on average, ready for sex earlier in relationships than women are, many young Christian women are being left with a dilemma: either commence a sexual relationship
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with a decent, marriage-minded man before she would prefer toalmost certainly before marriageor risk the real possibility that, in holding out for a godly, chaste, uncommon man, she will wait a lot longer than she would like. Plenty will wait so long as to put their fertility in jeopardy. By that time, the pool of available men is hardly the cream of the cropand rarely chaste. I know, I know: God has someone in mind for them, and its just a matter of time before they meet. God does work miracles. But the fact remains that there just arent as many serious Christian young men as there are women, and the men know it. Men get the idea that they can indeed find the ideal woman if they are patient enough. Life expectancies nearing 80 years prompt many to dabble with relationships in their 20s rather than commit to a life of the same thing for such a long time. Men have few compelling reasons to mature quickly. Marriage seems an unnecessary risk to many of them, even Christians. Sex seldom requires such a steep commitment. As a result, many men postpone growing up. Even their workplace performance is suffering: earnings for 25- to 34-year-old men have fallen by 20 percent since 1971, even after accounting for inflation. No wonder young women marry men who are on average at least two years older than they. Unfortunately, a key developmental institution for menmarriageis the very thing being postponed, thus perpetuating their adolescence. Changing Ideals Still, the data from nearly every survey suggest that young Americans want to get married. Eventually. That makes sense. Our Creator clearly intended for male and female to be knit together in covenantal relationship. An increasing number of men and women, however, arent marrying. They want to. But its not happening. And yet in surveying this scene, many Christians continue to perceive a sexual crisis, not a marital one. We buy, read, and pass along books about battling our sexual urges, when in fact we are battling them far longer than we were meant to. How did we misdiagnose this? The answer is pretty straightforward: While our sexual ideals have remained biblical and thus rooted in marriage, our ideas about marriage have changed significantly.
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Most young Americans no longer think of marriage as a formative institution, but rather as the institution they enter once they think they are fully formed. Increasing numbers of young evangelicals think likewise, and, by integrating these ideas with the timeless imperative to abstain from sex before marriage, weve created a new optimal life formula for our children: Marriage is glorious, and a big deal. But it must wait. And with it, sex. Which is seldom as patient. Objections to Young Marriage Now lets have a dose of that pragmatic reasoning, because there are some good reasons to avoid marrying young. Indeed, studies continue to show that early marriage is the number one predictor of divorce. So why on earth would I want to consider such a disastrous idea that flies in the face of the evidence? Two reasons: First, what is deemed early marriage by researchers is commonly misunderstood. The most competent evaluations of early marriage and divorce note that the association between early age-at-marriage and divorce occurs largely among those who marry as teenagers (before age 20). Although probably all of us know successful examples of such marriages, I still dont think teen marriage is wise. But the data suggest that marriages that commence in the early 20s are not as riskyespecially for womenas conventional wisdom claims. Second, the age at which a person marries never causes divorce. Rather, a young age-at-marriage is an indicator of an underlying proclivity for marital problems, the kind most Christian couples learn to avoid or solve without parting. Family scholars agree that there are several roots to the link between age-at-marriage and divorce. I consider five of them here, together with some practical ways that parents, friends, and the church can work to turn such weaknesses into strengths. Economic insecurity: Marrying young can spell poverty, at least temporarily. Yet the mentality that we need to shield young adults from the usual struggles of life by encouraging them to delay marriage until they are financially secure usually rests on an unrealistic standard of living. Good marriages grow through struggles, including economic ones. My wife and I are still fiscal conservatives because of our early days of austerity.
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social competition or sibling rivalry. Modern adolescence and young adulthood read like one contest after another: the race to win in sports, to get good grades, to attend a prestigious college, to attract the best-looking person, to secure that coveted job. Where does it end? Not with marriage. Even college students who wish to marry are painfully (or proudly) aware of the ring by spring competition. Marriage becomes equated with beautiful, successful people. Weddings become expensive displays of personal and family status. Clergy often get caught in the middle of this, and feel powerless to contest it. My father, a minister, told me that hed rather bury people than marry people. Such is the pressure cooker of modern weddings. None of this is good. Marriage is too important and too serious to be treated as yet another game to play, with winners and losers. Its a covenant of mutual submission and sacrificial love, not a contest of prestige, social norms, and saving face. A trend toward more modest weddings would be a great start. (3) A Poor Match: Marrying early can mean a short search process, which elevates the odds of a poorer match. In the age of online dating personality algorithms and matches, Americans have become well acquainted with the cultural notion that getting the right fit in a marital partner is extremely important. Chemistry is the new watchword as we meld marriage with science. Should opposites attract? Or should we look for common interests? There is no right answer to such questions, because successful marriages are less about the right personalities than about the right practices, like persistent communication and conflict resolution, along with the ability to handle the cyclical nature of so much about marriage, and a bedrock commitment to its sacred unity. Indeed, marriage research confirms that couples who view their marriages as sacred covenants are far better off than those who dont. Toward this end, pastors, premarital counselors, and Christian friends must be free to speak frankly into the lives of those seeking their counsel about marriage. While it may be nice to find an optimal match in marriage, it cannot hold a candle to sharing a mental and spiritual commitment to the enduring covenant between God,
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In sum, Christians need to get real about marriage: its a covenant helpmate thing that suffers from too much idealism and too little realism.Weddings may be beautiful, but marriages become beautiful. Personal storytelling and testimonies can work wonders here, since so much about life is learned behavior. Young adults want to know that its possible for two fellow believers to stay happy together for a lifetime, and they need to hear how the generations preceding them did it. Enduring Gospel Witness Abstinence is not to blame for our marital crisis. But promoting it has come at a cost in a permissive world in which we are increasingly postponing marriage. While I am no fan of the demographic realities I outlined earlier, one thing I will remember is that while sex matters, marriage matters more. The importance of Christian marriage as a symbol of Gods covenantal faithfulness to his peopleand a witness to the future union of Christ and his bridewill only grow in significance as the wider Western culture diminishes both the meaning and actual practice of marriage. Marriage itself will become a witness to the gospel. Romantic relationship formation is what I study. Ive spoken with hundreds of young adults about not only what they think or hope for, but also what they actually do. Time and again, Ive listened to Christian undergraduates recount to me how their relationships turned sexual. One thing I never ask them is why. I know why. Because sex feels great, it feels connectional, it feels deeply human. I never blame them for wanting that. Sex is intended to deepen personal relationships, and desire for it is intended to promote marriage. Such are the impulses of many young Christians in love. In an environment where parents and peers are encouraging them to delay thoughts of marriage, Im not surprised that their sexuality remains difficult to suppress and the source of considerable angst. We would do well to recognize some of these relationships for what they are: marriages in the making. If a young couple displays maturity, faith, fidelity, a commitment to understanding marriage as a covenant, and a sense of realism about marriage, then its our dutyindeed, our pleasureto help them expedite the part of marriage that involves public recognition and celebration of what God is already knitting together. We ought to rejoice and delight in them, and praise their love (Song of Sol. 1:4).
Mark Regnerus, Ph.D., is the author of Forbidden Fruit: Sex and 9 Religion in the Lives of American Teenagers (Oxford, 2007).
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