The fox spoils the hen house and the wolf threatens the sheepfold, but what happens when the unbeliever marries into the Christian home? Does it imperil the home? Does it weaken the church? Does God approve?
Satan attacks the bride of Christ from the outside (Acts 20:27), but who doubts that the devil revels most over infiltrating our homes and congregations, attacking from within – snatching away our sons and daughters one by one. Satan and his forces also celebrate when they can water down the convictions of those that Satan cannot completely tear away from the Savior’s side. Then, the next generation is “easy pickin’s.” How many congregations will be crippled because we did not adequately warn of the spiritual dangers of marrying outside the faith? The Devil harvests divorce, desertion, and weakened disciples whenever he successfully sows the seed thought, “You can marry outside the faith.” He gladly concedes the crop of limited exceptions.
Fundamental Principles
The Holy Spirit has not left us without warning. One of the fundamental principles of the New Testament is found in I Cor. 15:33, “Evil companionship corrupts good morals.” The term “evil” is not restricted to violent criminals. James tells us (4:4) that “friendship with the world is enmity (hostility) with God.” In I John 2:15, we are warned not to love the things in the world and in 2 John 9-11 we are cautioned against intimate fellowship with the doctrinally dissimilar. God does care about who are our most intimate friends and closest associates. These principles should be sufficient to deter Christians from marrying outside the Lord.
But what principles include the marriage relationship specifically? We note in I Cor. 10:16-17 the apostle’s assumption that only one loaf will be on the Lord’s Table. The same is true in Ephesians 5, when Paul likens husband and wife to Christ and the church and in 1 Peter 3:7 where Peter refers to husbands and wives as “heirs together of the grace of life.”
Is Marriage a Yoke?
Perhaps the brightest red flag against marrying outside the faith is Paul’s command in 2 Corinthians 6:14, “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers.” Some question why the majority of scholars directly or indirectly associate being “yoked together” with marriage. When first century Christians heard the term yoke, however, marriage was one of the first relationships that came to mind. Jesus declared in Matthew 19:6, “What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” Lexicographers Vine, Thayer and Bullinger each offer the definition “yoked together” for the Greek word translated “joined together” in the King James Version. Adam Clarke says of this phrase, “Among the ancients, when persons were newly married, they put a yoke upon their necks, or chains upon their arms, to show that they were to be one, closely united, and pulling equally together in all the concerns of life.”
In his commentary on 2 Corinthians 6:14, Burton Coffman writes, “This meant that no Christian had any business making alliances of any kind with pagans; and yes, that certainly includes marriage. Why should any Christian wife accept a pagan for a husband? This writer has known many who did it to their sorrow; but it was never anything but a sin. Paul was not here discussing the situation where one of a pagan couple had obeyed the gospel and the other had not; he had already dealt with that. Here he was laying down a rule that forbade such alliances in the first place. Furthermore, there is nothing here that limits the application to marriage. Any close alliance with a pagan partner in business, recreation, marriage, or any other kind of union can mean nothing but disaster for the Christian.”
Light and Darkness
One rhetorical question Paul asks in this context compels the objective disciple to conclude that marrying outside the faith misses the mark. He writes at the end of verse 14, “What communion has light with darkness?” Folks, every man and woman is in either the kingdom of light or in the kingdom of darkness. The Lord wills that those of us in the kingdom of light do not form intimate relationships – including marriage – with those in the kingdom of darkness.
Pleasing God
Our prayers are answered, according to I John 3:22, because “we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.” Can a Christian please God when he marries an unbeliever? Can we fail to counsel a Christian against marrying outside the faith without bearing responsibility for the spiritual fallout? The Scriptures say, No!” Keep the fox out of the henhouse. – Brett Hickey (unityseeker@hotmail.com; P. O. Box 68 Mountain Home, AR 72654)
