News stories and polls continue to report that people are choosing to marry at older ages. According to The Knot, a wedding planning company, the average age of marriage in 2025 is 32 (“What’s the Average…”). While The Knot gives various reasons for this average age of first marriage, the overarching reason is that both partners are in the workforce today. Before I reference the Bible to piece together guidelines for a time to marry, it must be noted that a definitive age to marry is not given. Rather, conditions for the timing of marriage are given. Here are two conditions that may suggest it’s marriage time.
“If someone thinks he is acting improperly toward an unmarried woman whom he knows if he has strong feelings for her and it seems like the right thing to do, he should do what he wants…they should get married.” – 2 Corinthians 7:36
“Don’t build a house and establish a home until your field are ready and you know you can earn a living.” –Proverbs 24:27
I believe these scriptures are good tips for someone considering when to pop the question.
7. When Is OK for a Married Couple to Separate?
If the guidelines above tell you the timing to get married, what about the timing to separate? Hmm, that may be a loaded question. Below, I give a few scriptures that guide principals for when and when not to separate.
“Haven’t you read, he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator made them male and female And said, for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two will become one flesh? What God has joined together, let man not separate.” –Matthew 19:5-6
You may be thinking, What if my feelings fade?
Could you imagine a mother’s feelings fading for her child? Spouses’ feelings for each other in marriage grow to be like that. More importantly, during marriage, you learn not to act based on feelings alone.
Of course, the bible also gives the circumstances for divorce. In the book of Matthew, Jesus said, “Anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery” (vs. 19).
Sometimes in a marriage relationship, one spouse accepts Christ after the wedding. Then life becomes challenging because the new believer adopts new values and habits. Instructions for this situation are found in I Corinthians 7:12-13, saying, “If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her. And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him.”
But there is another type of separation in marriage. One where sex is withheld. The bible gives us guidelines for when separation through abstinence is permissible in marriage. I Corinthians 7:5 instructs us, “Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourself to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.”
One scripture in Hebrews gives the overall sentiment of these scriptures on marriage and separation, no matter the context: “Marriage is honorable in every respect; and, in particular, sex within marriage is pure” (Hebrews 13:4).
Photo Credit:© Unsplash/Engin Akyurt
Cantice Greene
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