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"The decision was very binary. You made the decision to marry according to the wishes, and often for the sake of your parents, or you did not marry at all".

But now we have concepts like dating and the phenomenon of the never-married 30 year old who simply hasn't found a suitable spouse yet. Those were nonexistent in the 1st century but they are the reality today. I think that's a good indication that much of the traditional teaching on sex/marriage in not applicable. The Bible does not address those concepts and so there is no existing law regarding "circumstantial singleness".

One thing I do know is that people weren't designed to remain virgins until they're 30 or older. People will act according to their God-given nature and it is unrealistic to expect otherwise. Even Paul recognizes this in 1 Corinthians 7. He tells people that if they can't handle celibacy (which will be true of most people) then they should just get married. Easy enough in his day, but not anymore. If he had a concept of Prolonged Circumstantial Singleness then I think he would have addressed that and allowed for other avenues of sexual expression.

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