What was marriage like in the pagan world according to the Bible teaching?
In the pagan world, marriage was largely a place to have children. It lacked fidelity and integrity, and men thought nothing of going to prostitutes. Wives often accepted this as custom, as in Corinth, where believers had been saved from that background but still felt its pull.
Les teaches that in the pagan world marriage was not marked by fidelity or integrity. It was simply a place to have children, and people thought nothing of it. He illustrates with a news magazine story about rampant prostitution in Thailand, where the average husband thought nothing of going to a house of prostitution, and a young wife said it did not bother her because it was custom—her mother and grandmother had put up with it. Corinth was no different. These believers had been saved from that background, but salvation did not remove its lingering pull.