I’m afraid what I’m saying may be the opposite of what I’ve conveyed to you.
It is common in biblical times for younger women to be married to somewhat older men. What I suggest is the harm done in that situation.
And it goes both ways, just for the record. To engage in sexual relations with someone who is departed from your own age by significance (In my arbitration.. say... 2 years (Until age 25)) will result in the same harm as what law dictates below the age of 18.
Basically, what I’m saying is that 18 is even far too young to be considered of sound mind for an adult post-25 to consider. When I was 32 I dated (and had relations with) someone who was 18 (19 2 weeks into it). An adult ? Yes. On my same level ? No. I stopped upon realizing it, and now I advocate a stricter line that shouldn’t be crossed.
I wasn’t breaking laws, but the harm was very sublime. In our modern world, people should have moments and gain an intimate relationship with those of their same age - or approximate. At age 25 (And even that is iffy) does one begin to develop sensabilities that are on par with advanced adults.
In a biblical time period, life was VERY different. Maturing had likely ended at a young age - with a youngster learning all there was to know at a younger age. There are too many choices available to us all now - and those choices should be independently evaluated not by the hand of an interested party (Such as an older lover - even one with good intent) but by that person alone.
Furthermore, to a relationship with God, That person should have an appropriate and strong covenant with God - Not an older adult who thinks they know “What’s best”.
In conclusion, For a person of 30 years (or older) to consider a fair relationship with someone below the age of 25 is to take advantage of their limited time on earth, their limited understanding of the world around them, and their limited exposure to the covenant of God. To find God on their own terms, and establish their own lives. As an adult over the age of 30 - Your mere engagement undermines this process.
“There are too many choices available to us all now - and those choices should be independently evaluated not by the hand of an interested party (Such as an older lover - even one with good intent) but by that person alone.”
I would suggest that the decision to marry, or even to enter into an enduring sexual relationship would be something that the young person would do after consulting their parents and other responsible people in their life.
As out of control hormones are a noted source of bad decisions, I should like to suggest that the sexually inexperienced would benefit from whatever family and theological counsel they might have available and be willing to avail themselves of.
However, I must disagree with your assumption of appropriate partners be one or two years apart until after 25 years of age.
Given that females mature years ahead of males, and that we now have the hard date to say this with certainty, that females have chosen older males would seem to have had both societal and evolutionary advantage.
A passing glance at American history will give a plethora of examples of females who married well away from your suggested age bracket, yet were sexually, reproductively, financially, and societally successful.
Arguably, the Judeo-Christian reliance on parental influence on marriage was rather more successful that any policy yet devised by post-1930’s American government intervention in this area.
While American technical society is vastly different from the America of the Founders, human nature has not evolved in the merest blink of evolutionary time. I would thus suggest that history in this area has validated the staid conservative maxim: “If it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change.”
When we allowed gooberment into family and marriage with the beginning of the “New Deal” era, the introduction of change in this area of human life was unnecessary and the results of those changes were very negative.