1 Corinthians
7:39
Tuesday, February 2, 2021
A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. If her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, but only if he loves the Lord.
This year will mark the 40th anniversary of my ordination
to the Gospel ministry. In that time I
have been asked to officiate many weddings.
I only bowed-out once, and the reason was of Biblical conscience, not
expediency. It was a matter of faith;
more accurately, a lack of faith. The bride-to-be was a professing member of
the church, and the groom-to-be was not.
It came out in the first counselling time that the groom was a
practicing agnostic. He was a nice guy,
the kind you’d like to hang-out with, and not particularly antagonistic towards
faith, he just had no interest. He said
he’d never stand in the way of her faith, but just didn’t choose to be
involved.
Don’t team up with those who are unbelievers. How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness? 2 Corinthians 6:14
It has been long held by many theologians that Paul’s first letter to
the believers at Corinth raised so many questions, his second letter was in
answer to their letter asking for explanation.
As a church full of new converts, this is anticipated; they had asked
Paul for guidance in marriage and family life.
As with the couple I counseled sometimes the truth is more than you
want to hear. And, from this side of the
counseling room, it is also not an easy truth to speak. There were many tears shed, and that turned
into anger. It was not pretty. The bride-to-be expected a perfunctory
session of a few platitudes, and then let’s get to the real business of
planning the flowers and reception.
Having the preacher tell her she was making a mistake was more than a
surprise, it turned everything upside down.
What she couldn’t see is that God was showing her the
right-side-up. She had this perfect
Hallmark snapshot in her head of a wedding day, with her being the center of
attention, and all the adoring looks and comments that would come her way. She was thinking of a festive, happy wedding
day; she hadn’t considered all the other days of marriage that would
follow. But God wanted her to focus on
what a life and soul shared with an unbeliever would be like. She could not stand for that and eventually
left the church.
I heard later that the couple did marry (and divorced shortly
after). I write this not to gloat or be
proved right. God’s Word is always true
and right; the likes of me is hardly needed to validate what Jehovah has
already pronounced. I merely hoped to
head off the misery the couple was courting.
As a minister who is charged to love the sheep and tell the flock God’s
truth, I could do no less. In retrospect
I can truthfully report that I felt no joy in any of it. But one can scarcely feel guilty for telling
the truth.
For You Today
If you are planning a wedding…or it’s much later and you’re planning
on exiting a marriage…it might be the best investment of your time to stop and
consider if you’ve being looking for the best-looking, best-providing, or best-whatever
kind of mate, rather than the kind of person you admire for his or her
commitment to Christ.
The fact remains…you can choose an “unequal yoke” of being a believer
married to an unbeliever, but you will also be choosing against God’s perfect
will for your life.
[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
For another post on Numbers 22 see The Strength of a Marriage and Follow the Leader
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