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That reminds me of Peter telling the church leaders to take a hike.
Saw this article online, seemed interesting. Any thoughts?
Is it Biblical for Christians to Get Married without a Marriage License?
There's another interesting wrinkle, especially as the state and Biblical definitions of marriage and what makes a couple eligible for marriage diverge. Essentially, in abdicating the authority to marry to the state the church has opened the door for marriage to be defined by the secular culture. So at what point do churches stop recognizing legal marriage registries and instead set up their own registrations?I think the cost quoted was beyond his means, church and perhaps familial expectations. He decided to cohabit and indeed left his church and has not been back, the wrong course of action. I think both sides had the wrong course of action. Perhaps with the rise of cohabitation in our day and age marriages should be made more accessible, more affordable, more straightforward. What is easy for one might be hard for another and I don't think a 'one size fits all approach' works. God Bless
I'm not sure it's as simple as being able to answer with a single verse, as the relationship Christians are to have towards authorities is a bit of a thicket. Certainly, there is a general sense of subjection that is encouraged but there are points at which the governmental authority must be bucked. In Paul's day a chief issue was offering sacrifices to idols and paying homage to Caesar, which Christians refused on pain of death. So there are points when we are called to defy authorities, though we must remain in subjection to them even in defiance. For instance, if such a move were to have legal repercusions placed upon it then it is possible the proscribed action would be to defy the law but to not oppose the repercusions.
I'm aware, though you seem to have ignored the rest of the post. Paul was in defiance of Roman law(and would eventually be executed for breaking that law) when he wrote that verse to Timothy, so to take it as an absolute demand for conformity to the law isn't really appropriate. Now, I am not saying that marriage is a point for civil disobedience but civil disobedience is an avenue open to the Christian and so I am posing the question. As far as I am aware there aren't any laws that will require pastors to compromise their convictions should they continue to abdicate the collection of birth/death registries. Marriage, on the other hand, may bring a pastor to that point.
Any law that calls for divided allegiances is subject to ignoring, with full knowledge and acceptance of the legal penalties. The central issue here is the question of whether obedience to the laws of the land require disobedience to God's law. Which comes into play when the question of marriage is at hand. So long as we can obey the law without breaking God's law, we are to obey the law. And in the arena of marriage, there is the question of whether it would be breaking God's law to perform ceremonies for individuals ineligible for marriage(as well as the Biblical question of who is eligible for marriage.)
