![]() Jesus' response to the woman essentially said, "Correctly you have said, ‘a husband I don't have.' "In essence, in the original language, Jesus was saying, "Lady, you've got somebody at home, but he's not your husband!" Jesus stated that the man she currently had" was not her husband. I fact, the word order in John 4:17 is key to understanding the situation. When she told Jesus that she did not have a husband, he then corrected the situation, quoting her own words back to her, yet changing the emphasis. Jesus responded to the woman by bringing light to the truth of the situation. She answered him by stating that she had no husband. Jesus confronted the woman by asking her to call her husband. ![]() He first dialogued with her about other issues, spiritual and social, before he asked the question which led to her confrontation.Ģ. Yet Jesus used prudence to call out the woman's sinfulness. He began a discussion with her even though it was unacceptable for a Jewish Rabbi to speak to a Samaritan woman during this the time period. Jesus began to build a relationship with a simple request: a drink of water. One reason for this view is that she went to the well at the hottest time of the day, when no other woman would be there. The traditional interpretation of this passage sees this woman as living in shame. This is Jesus' encounter with a Samaritan woman. The best case study we find in the Bible, related to confronting cohabitation, is in John 4. Therefore, the church needs carefully considered guidelines to address this issue.ġ. It is also the church's responsibility to display the love of Christ to everyone without exception. It is the church's responsibility to maintain a biblical standard among its members and leaders. So How Should the Church Respond to Intimate Cohabitation? However, there is a difference between being judgmental and pursuing church discipline. The reason for the church's role in accountability is because the church is the bride of Christ and as such, she is meant to be holy and set apart. Paul states that it is not the church's place to judge the outside world, or unbelievers. Therefore, in present application, this verse refers only to professing believers within the church. In 5:12, Paul asked the rhetorical question "Are you not to judge those inside?" using a Greek word that implies a positive answer, which in this case would mean yes, the church should judge within itself. This "judgment" refers only to those who are considered to be within the church and is based on biblical mandates rather than personal opinion. In 1 Corinthians 5:12-13, Paul makes it clear that a role of the church is to keep itself pure by removing evil from among members. However, there is a responsibility within the church to hold those who profess Christ accountable. Even members within the church declare that it is not the place of humans to judge others' transgressions. They feel that the church has no right to judge their actions. Many outside the church see the body of Christ as hypocritical and judgmental. Rather, believers are to strive toward learning what is pleasing to God and expose that which is contrary to the life Christ desires us to live ( Ephesians 5:10-11). Their deeds are unfruitful and unpleasing to the Lord ( Ephesians 5:11). Paul exhorts the Ephesians to take no part with those who live in a state of rebellion against God. There is a distinction between those who claim Christ as Lord and those who live with Christ as Lord of their lives. Paul states that sexual immorality, along with other impurities, is not to be mentioned, much less practiced, among members of the church because such actions are not fitting for those who claim Christ as Lord ( Ephesians 5:3). A continual lack of control of one's fleshly desires is characteristic of someone who does not know God.Įphesians 5:1-14 clearly contrasts someone who is living in habitual sin, which includes sexual immorality, with someone who strives to be an imitator of God. First Thessalonians 4:3-8 says that abstaining from sexual immorality is correlated with sanctification and is a part of God's will for believers. ![]() While Scripture is not explicit regarding the issue of cohabitation, it does have much to say in respect to sexual immorality, which includes sex outside marriage. What the Bible Says about Intimate Cohabitation Given this trend, the church must consider not only how it stands on the moral issue, but to what degree, if at all, cohabiting couples should participate and serve within the body of Christ. According to the National Survey of Family Growth, a government-funded study of more than 20,000 individuals from 2006-2010, the last few decades have seen a dramatic rise in cohabitation, or living with a member of the opposite sex in an intimate relationship outside marriage.
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