Comments on: On Half-Christian Marriage & Judgement

By: Ben Holt

Ben Holt — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 17:09:14 +0000

Yep, totally agree!

By: Jayne Hansen

Jayne Hansen — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 13:01:42 +0000

I wonder if “stay out of it completely” is a little too extreme. We are, of course, called to bring it to God. We can intercede on their behalf with the Lord and maybe He will provide an opportunity to share. If not, He make work in their lives through our prayers in other ways, but that would be the extent of our involvement at the time. I don’t want to say ‘all we can do is pray’ because I believe there is actually a lot of power in prayer, so I think that can be enough!

By: Ben Holt

Ben Holt — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 21:16:32 +0000

That’s a really good point. I’ve been thinking about this too, and Jill and I discussed it this morning.

I totally agree that the closer the better, the earlier the better, and before dating is the best!

But if for some reason these conditions aren’t met, or can’t be, I wonder if the right response is “stay out of it completely”? That’s what I’m unsure of.

By: Jayne Hansen

Jayne Hansen — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 21:00:57 +0000

The only thing I thought might be missing from your discussion is that there would need to be a relationship with the person *inside* the church before one would try to “gently persuade” them not to marry a non-christian. It would be unbecoming of a Christian to address someone they only knew casually inside their church about such a personal matter. It would be even better if it would a group of close friends. And best yet, would be if this persuasian came much earlier in the situation. If this is a friend inside your church, you would ideally address the issue of even dating a non-christian (before they were considering marring…. [my little addition 🙂 ]

By: Ben Holt

Ben Holt — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 16:40:15 +0000

Heh, come on Matt, you couldn’t find anything to disagree with? That’s no fun 😀

By: Dcn. Brench

Dcn. Brench — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 03:29:17 +0000

You didn’t get into enough detail for me to disagree with you, so I’ll stand by your arguments here! I just wanted to share a similar story to the one you said at the end of your post/article. I know a woman who became a Christian twenty years ago; she’d been a pagan and her husband was an atheist. She, too, upon conversion, did her best to share her faith with her spiritually-uninterested husband. Only on his deathbed (literally within days) did he finally admit/accept that he believed in Christ. So they prayed together, he received communion, and passed away. She was sad to lose him, but is very thankful that she can know where he is!

While these “unequally-yoked” marriages (as that verse describes it) aren’t the ideal, it’s still encouraging to see God working through them. ‘Tis what redemption is all about.