What does the bible say about touching breasts before marriage?
The Bible doesn’t say anything directly about touching breasts before getting married. But it does stress sexual innocence and staying away from sexual immorality. Different Christian groups and people can have different ideas and teachings about this subject. It’s best to get advice from someone you trust and respect concerning the topic. Hopefully, their advice lines up with the Bible.
I appreciate that this response didn’t give a blanket, one-size-fits-all rule to this question. Because, as you imply, it’s not a clearly stated issue. I think good questions to ask about this are: 1) does she want it? Consent needs to be honored here. 2) Does this feel right for where we are in our relationship? If you’ve gone on a couple dates, something as intimate as touching her breasts is almost certainly not appropriate. 3) Does this help build her up as a person? Does it improve her self-esteem and self-confidence? If yes, that’s a good reason to do it. 4) Does this help us look forward to sex in marriage? If yes, that’s a good reason. If no, it’s rather just about gratification, then probably not a good idea. 5) Is this something we want to save for marriage? It’s not wrong, but maybe you still want to wait for marriage to enjoy it.
Perhaps controversially, I think it’s good and normal if a seriously dating Christian couple, who’s considering marriage, is comfortable and enamored with each other to the point that they will caress and fondle each other’s body, including butt and chest, with consent. If that fondling includes slipping hands underneath clothes and underwear, I think that’s a sign that things are progressing well. My wife struggles with self-esteem, and when I was seriously dating her my hands would explore her butt under underpants or pjs. And I’d tell her I needed to feel every inch of it, because of how good and beautiful is and how much I wanted her. Because this made her feel more empowered as a person. Similarly, she craved for my to caress and play with her breasts, so I frequently did. Because of how much we benefited from that. Now, we set an arbitrary line of waiting until we were married for me to see her breasts. I don’t think the Bible clearly says one way or the other, but it was a personal, mutually agreed upon boundary.
Thanks for the thoughtful response. I appreciate your perspective although I view certain aspects of your response differently. For example, I’d recommend straying from anything as a single couple that may tempt you to do things that Christians are commanded to do only under the context of marriage. But, your points of consent are valid.
Yes, if something will tempt a couple to go further than they agreed or to do things reserved for marriage, then they should refrain. In the case of my now-wife and I, we knew we wouldn’t go past certain limits and weren’t tempted to.