I also know people who have been married in a church, broke up through adultery or just stopped loving each other and are now divorced.
What arrangement does God favor? I really don't know in this case. Is he going to condemn the first couple because they don't have a certificate in their top drawer?
“I know a couple, man and woman, who have been living together for 30+ years, not married. Super devoted to each other through thick and thin. True definition of soulmates to the core.
I also know people who have been married in a church, broke up through adultery or just stopped loving each other and are now divorced.
What arrangement does God favor? I really don’t know in this case. Is he going to condemn the first couple because they don’t have a certificate in their top drawer?”
This is a situation i am aware of.
I think I should tell you that historicaly that the devoted couple in your first case would have historically been regarded as married whether or not they had the official Government or Church Sanction or not. Government Sanctions are of course a recent invention(Last ~100 years or so) of the progressives. To be honest Church sanction in many parts is not a heck of a lot older.
Thus I cannot think it likely that God would much care that theses people did not get the official papers from either of the earthly institutions. I do however think it somewhat more likely that God would care about those who became divorced. It seems there to be a question of faith and faithfulness to ones wife or husband. That given with or without earthly institutional sanction is of little consequence to the real question which is of your faith, your choices, your commitment.