Broadcast Christianity (B.C.) What Does the Bible Say About Sex Before Marriage? -Dr. J. Vernon McGee

‘What Does the Bible Say About Sex Before Marriage? 
by Dr. J. Vernon McGee

Q: My fiancé says we should start sleeping together now that we're engaged so we will have an established relationship when we get married.

What does the Bible say?

A: In the Ten Commandments given by God to His people is this: "Thou shalt not commit adultery" (Exodus 20:14). Since your marriage has not taken place, having sex together is adultery.

The request your fiancé has made of you raises two questions about him. First, does he really love you or is he confusing love with lust? Second, is he being honest in promising that he will marry you? In spite of all this new emphasis on sex, the divorce courts continue to grind out their monotonous story of the tragedy of modern marriage in ever-increasing numbers. I think it is time that God is heard. I feel that the pulpit is long overdue in presenting what God has to say on this subject.

In the very beginning it was God who created them male and female. It was God who brought the woman to the man. God blessed them, and marriage became sacred and holy and pure. And, my friend, it is the only relationship among men and women that God does bless down here. He promises to bless no other. He says that if marriage is made according to His plan, He will bless it.

Christian marriage is an adumbration of that wonderful relationship between Christ and the believer. Christian marriage and the relationship of Christ and the church are sacred.

Listen to me very carefully. The physical act of marriage is sacred, a sacrament made by God Himself and one which He sanctifies. He says that this relationship is to reveal to you the love of Christ for your soul. Therefore, the woman is to see in a man one to whom she can yield herself in a glorious abandonment. She can give herself wholly and completely. She can find perfect fulfillment and satisfaction in this man, because this is the man for her and because he has committed himself to her in marriage.

You can have a bargain-basement, second-hand, hand-me-down marriage if you want. If you take the cheap way you will have a home that in no respect will represent Christ and the church. It can be a hell down here; take it from one who has counseled with many couples who are Christians. But, my young person, you can ask God for the best. You can tell Him that you will not accept anything short of the best, and He will give you a life in living color. In marriage, sex is a holy relationship. And if it is not, it is no more than an animal act. When a man and a woman give themselves to each other in an act of marital love, they can know the love of Christ as no one else can know it. That is exactly what is said in the Word of God: "This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church" (Ephesians 5:32).

When a man and woman come to that place, then they can know Christ who gave Himself in love for us. They can know then what it is to offer themselves in total dedication to Him. God wants His children to be happily married. He has a plan and purpose for every one of us if we would only listen to Him.

DR. J. VERNON MCGEE

John Vernon McGee was born in Hillsboro, Texas, in 1904. Dr. McGee remarked, "When I was born and the doctor gave me the customary whack, my mother said that I let out a yell that could be heard on all four borders of Texas!" His Creator well knew that he would need a powerful voice to deliver a powerful message. As a student pastor, Dr. McGee's first church was located on a red clay hill in Midway, Georgia. It was there that he received his greatest compliment: "It was from a country boy wearing high buttoned, yellow shoes. After a morning service he came to speak to me. He groped for words, then blurted out, 'I never knew Jesus was so wonderful!' He started to say more but choked up and hurried out of the church. As I watched him stride across the field, I prayed, 'Oh, God, help me to always preach so that it can be said, I never knew Jesus was so wonderful.'" After completing his education (earning his A.B. from Southwestern University in Memphis, Tennessee; his B.D. from Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia; his Th.M. and Th.D. from Dallas Theological Seminary in Dallas, Texas), and after pastoring Presbyterian churches in Decatur, GA, Nashville, TN, and Cleburne, TX, he and his wife came west, settling in Pasadena, where he accepted a call to the Lincoln Avenue Presbyterian Church. He recalls this period as the happiest in his life, with a young family and a young congregation whom he loved. Dr. McGee's greatest pastorate was at the historic, Church of the Open Door in downtown Los Angeles, where he served from 1949 to 1970. There he began a daily radio broadcast called "High Noon Bible Class" on a single station. Dr. McGee began teaching Thru the Bible in 1967. After retiring from the pastorate, he set up radio headquarters in Pasadena, and the radio ministry expanded rapidly. Today the program airs on over 400 stations each day in the United States and Canada, is heard in more than 100 languages around the world and is broadcast worldwide via the Internet. During his last few years, failing health demanded the cancellation of many speaking engagements. This was extremely distressing to him. There was no recurrence of an earlier bout with cancer during this time, only a weakening heart. Back in 1965, after radical surgery, the doctors had given him 6 months to live. The Lord gave him 23 years. Dr. McGee and the Board of Directors planned in advance how the program would continue in the event of Dr. McGee's homegoing. The message would remain the same and the "voice" of Thru the Bible Radio would continue to be Dr. McGee, through the use of the taped 5-year program, except for those foreign language broadcasts, where the producers use the printed 5-volume Bible study to translate and produce the program. On the morning of December 1, 1988, a few minutes after a visit with the then Associate Director of Thru the Bible, alert and in conversation centered around his concern for the continuance of the radio ministry, Dr. McGee fell asleep in his chair and quietly passed into the presence of his Savior. If you'd like to know more about Dr. McGee, you might be interested in our hardback book The Whole Word for the Whole World: The Life and Ministry of J. Vernon McGee. Tags: J. Vernon McGee, Broadcast Christianity, Michael James Stone,

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