Skip to main content

Divorce & the Christian, Part 3: Married to an Unbeliever

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” (2 Cor. 6:14-16)

To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord): If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her. And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. (1 Cor. 7:12-14)
The first quotation gives us five reasons why a believer should not be partnered with an unbeliever. The reasons are given by asking rhetorical questions.

The unequal yoke reference is taken from Deuteronomy 22:10: "Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together." Why? I suggest two reasons: 1. The ox was a “clean” animal, and the donkey was an “unclean” animal. 2. Since they are not physically matched, the yoke would hurt both animals.

The yoke covers all kinds of partnerships, including marriages.

There are two reasons why people have unequal marriages:

1. The believer married an unbeliever, either because the believer did not know that the Bible prohibits this, or because he/she thought the unbeliever was a believer. The third option is that the believer knew that it was prohibited, knew that the intended was an unbeliever, and deliberately chose to disobey with the plan of confessing the sin after the wedding and then converting the spouse. They are married for good.

2. After two unbelievers are married, one of them receives Christ. They are now unequally yoked. They are still married for good.

In either case, the believer should not break the marriage. More sin and more damage are caused by breaking the marriage than were caused by the disobedient marriage.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Getting Old

This is a post for those who are getting old or considering themselves old, from 65-100. Right now, I am 91.* I will be 92 in October. I have my own house, but I cannot live in it alone because of my physical inability to move around. One of my sons lives with me. All of us will have to make some adjustments. That includes money, relatives, your own ability and willpower to stay independent, etc. My advice is if physically and financially you can live independently, you should certainly do that. If you do, you will still need to have visits from your family frequently. You need your family. Even if you don’t need them to take care of you, you need them for the fellowship. The more fellowship you have, the longer you’ll live. If you can stay independent do it, but only if friends and relatives can see you often. In my case, I can’t walk, and I can’t do much physically. So, whether I like it or not, someone else has to get me up, get me showered, and get me dressed. I am blessed to have
Post a Comment
Read more

Why Is Obedience So Hard?

There are several reasons why obedience seems hard. I will comment on some of them and then speak positively on how obedience is easy. We think: 1) Obedience is an infringement on freedom. Since we are free in Christ, and obedience is somehow contrary to that freedom, we conclude that obedience is not good. Yet we know it is good. Thus, we become confused about obedience and are not single-minded. 2) Obedience is works. We who have been justified by grace through faith are opposed to works; therefore, we are opposed to obedience. 3) We have tried to obey and have failed—frequently. Therefore, the only solution is to disobey and later confess to receive forgiveness. It is easier to be forgiven by grace than to obey by effort. 4) We confuse obedience to men with obedience to God. Although these are sometimes one and the same (see Romans 13, 1 Peter 2-3, Ephesians 5-6, Colossians 3, and Titus 2), sometimes they are not the same (see Colossians 2:20-23, Mark 7, 1 Timothy 4:1-5, a
5 comments
Read more

Constant Victory

I came across the following poem (prayer) and devotional in Amy Carmichael's book Edges of His Ways :   Before the winds that blow do cease, Teach me to dwell within thy calm; Before the pain has passed in peace, Give me, my God, to sing a psalm. Let me not lose the chance to prove The fulness of enabling love. O Love of God, do this for me; Maintain a constant victory.   Before I leave the desert land For meadows of immortal flowers, Lead me where streams at thy command Flow by the borders of the hours, That when the thirsty come I may Show them the fountains in the way. O love of God, do this for me; Maintain a constant victory.   "This prayer was written for the ill, and for the tired. It is so easy to fail when not feeling fit. As I thought of them, I also remembered those who, thank God, are not ill and yet can be hard-pressed. Sometimes in the midst of the rush of things, it seems impossible to be victorious, always to be peaceful,
Post a Comment
Read more