Sex outside Marriage links to Harm

According to statistics, sex outside marriage does people emotional, physical and financial harm to some capacity. When you think about sex, what comes to mind? If marriage refused to enter your thought patterns, i’m here to encourage a new way of thinking about and participating in sex. In this blog, I want to share with you the functional nature of sex, and good reasons why we should wait until marriage to engage.

I participated in a behavioral science research at University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) where we measured a hormone called “oxytocin”. Oxytocin is the hormone responsible for inducing our ability to bond with others. This is relative to why sexual addictions occur. There are few things that occur during sexual intercourse. Women who were currently involved in a committed relationship experienced greater oxytocin increases in response to positive emotions than single women. This affects self-worth and esteem which have been linked to many suicide cases. Researchers examined government data obtained in surveys of 6,500 youth ages 14 to 17, and found that more than 25 percent of sexually active girls said they were depressed "a lot of the time" or "most or all of the time.”

Sex is meant for long-term relationship-satisfaction and commitment. In the Bible, 1st Corithians 6:16-18 ¹⁶ Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” Being joined in a relationship by way of soul ties can be difficult to escape even if you are being abused, manipulated or mistreated in any way. Again, oxytocin is the hormone responsible for human pair attachment. This clip below shares more about the benefits of waiting until marriage to have sex.  

Not only this, but outside of marriage, accounts for many diseases, abortions and funerals.  In 2005 (the most recent year for which there is reliable data), approximately 1.21 million abortions took place in the U.S., down from an estimated 1.29 million in 2002, 1.31 million in 2000 and 1.36 million in 1996. From 1973 through 2005, more than 45 million legal abortions have occurred in America. Average amount paid for each procedure was $413. At least 80% of all abortions are performed on unmarried women (CDC).

There are great benefits to having sex (the highest level of physical intimacy) in marriage (the highest level of human relationship). Understand that a relationship built on sex is more likely to end in devastation. Besides financial pains, sex before marriage are related to an increase in divorce rates. Waiting until marriage teaches us patience and self-control. Waiting helps us to see where the value of our relationship exists. Waiting also enables us to fulfill God’s purpose, nature and design for sex. After recognizing how participating in sex (outside of marriage) play a role in our life, mentally, emotionally and financially, what can we to do about it? We can continue abusing ourselves and our world or we can make up our minds and say, “today I’m going to stop.”