Today I saw a Facebook meme asking "Having sex on the first date is called what?" Some of the responses included "Try it before you buy it!" and "Take it for a test drive!" The appropriate response is simply: "Sin." But why is it considered a sin? Is it because it violates the 7th commandment? Yes, that's certainly a part of it, but it goes beyond that. The ultimate purpose of dating is to discover your future wife, your bride, the one whom you promise to love, honor, and cherish until death. How can you genuinely love, honor, and cherish her if you've already reduced her to being an "it" that you can try on like a second-hand shirt, or as a mere product sample, objectifying her and seeing her as you would see a prostitute?
"Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church—a love marked by giving, not getting. Christ’s love makes the church whole. His words evoke her beauty. Everything he does and says is designed to bring the best out of her, dressing her in dazzling white silk, radiant with holiness. And that is how husbands ought to love their wives. They’re really doing themselves a favor—since they’re already “one” in marriage. No one abuses his own body, does he? No, he feeds and pampers it. That’s how Christ treats us, the church, since we are part of his body. And this is why a man leaves father and mother and cherishes his wife. No longer two, they become “one flesh.” This is a huge mystery, and I don’t pretend to understand it all. What is clearest to me is the way Christ treats the church. And this provides a good picture of how each husband is to treat his wife, loving himself in loving her, and how each wife is to honor her husband." -- Ephesians 5:25-33