BibleAsk Team

What are the Biblical reasons for a married person not to go out with a friend from the opposite sex?

For a married person to go out with a friend from the opposite sex may seem harmless but it is placing oneself in the path of temptation. A married person should avoid such action for the following Biblical reasons:

1-A married couple should give one another his/her full rights.

“The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights” (1 Corinthians 7:3-5).

2-A husband and a wife should love one another

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Ephesians 5:25).
“In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself” (Ephesians 5:28).
“Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them” (Colossians 3:19).
“And so train the young women to love their husbands and children” (Titus 2:4).

3-A married couple should respect one another

“However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband” (Ephesians 5:33 ).

4-A married couple should honor one another

“Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered” (1 Peter 3:7).

5-A married couple should submit to one another

“Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands” (Ephesians 5:22-24).

6-A married couple should become one

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh” (Ephesians 5:31).

7-A married couple should honor their marriage vows of faithfulness

“Let marriage be held in honor among all…” (Hebrews 13:4).

8-A married couple should have sanctified not shady lives

“For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God” (1 Thessalonians 4:3-5).
“That each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor” (1 Thessalonians 4:4).

9-A married couple should be a good example for all

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

“Therefore…whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).

10- A husband and a wife should NOT place themselves in the path of temptation

“Flee sexual immorality…” (1 Corinthians 6:18).

The temptation to sexual immorality may often be so subtle that a person is secure only by not placing himself in its path (2 Samuel 11:2–4; Job 31:1; Proverbs 6:23–26; Matthew 5:27–29).

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