What makes marriage different from just living together? Beyond saying it's "sacred before God," what's the real difference? This week at Crowd Church, Matt Edmundson shares his journey from broken thinking about marriage to discovering God's beautiful design for covenant commitment.
Growing up with divorced parents, Matt genuinely wondered if marriage was just an expensive party for something that wouldn't last. But through studying scripture on covenant for two years, everything changed. Discover why marriage isn't outdated - it's timeless, and why the problem isn't the institution but that we've forgotten what it actually is.
The statistics tell a revealing story - in 1970, seven out of ten UK adults were married. Today it's four out of ten, predicted to drop to three out of ten by 2050. But we haven't stopped wanting committed relationships. We've just substituted marriage with cohabitation, which has increased 144% in the last 30 years.
"The problem isn't that marriage itself is broken. My thinking about marriage was what was actually broken."
What we discover:
Key takeaway: The problem isn't that marriage is broken - it's that we've forgotten what marriage actually is.
At the dawn of time, God gives the original blueprint for marriage in Genesis 2:24. In this tiny verse, we discover three powerful truths about biblical marriage.
"Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh."
Biblical marriage means:
Key takeaway: Marriage requires leaving your old way of living and choosing to put your spouse first in everything.
Matt shares honestly about his struggle with biblical teaching on sex. At 18, driven by testosterone and cultural messaging, the idea that sex before marriage was wrong seemed completely outdated.
"God, I can believe all this gospel stuff - just don't ask me to stop having sex before marriage, because I'm not going to do it."
What changed everything:
Key takeaway: Sex isn't just physical pleasure - it's covenant-making that binds you to one person for life.
Not everyone's situation is straightforward. Maybe you've recently come to faith and you're living with someone you love. Perhaps you've bought a house together. Maybe your partner isn't yet a Christian.
"When Jesus met people in complicated situations, he didn't condemn them. He showed them a better way and gave them grace for the journey."
Practical guidance:
