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the then exceptional times made it better if she did not do so (40). It is very important to
note that Paul limits her marriage and choice of a husband to being "only in the Lord".
This means that she can only marry a believer and further than that, a believer who was
the Lord's will as far as she was concerned. In his second letter marriage with
unbelievers is expressly forbidden:
"Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers: for what fellowship have righteousness
and iniquity? or what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath
Christ with Belial? or what portion hath a believer with an unbeliever?" (II Cor. 6: 14,
15 R.V.).
We need to remember that God's prohibitions are not with the object of denying us
pleasures, or anything of value. They are to save us trouble, anxiety, and misery; and to
keep us in the best conditions to serve Him fully and faithfully. Never was this Divine
rule for the marriage of believers needed to be stressed more than now. We have seen so
many cases of tragedy, life-long unhappiness and spiritual fruitlessness in young people
result from its disobedience, and to everyone who is contemplating marriage with an
unbeliever, we would say don't. The unsaved one may be very attractive in many ways
and the believer may delude himself into thinking that after marriage "it will all come
right" and such a one will be saved, but this is just wishful thinking and nothing more.
Marriage must never be looked at as a kind of god to which everything must be
sacrificed. How can the Lord bless a union which He has forbidden? And how can there
be any lasting happiness for a believer in a life-long relationship without His blessing?
For it needs to be stressed that God's children cannot take the lax view of marriage and
divorce that the unbelieving world does. If every detail of our lives is a concern to the
Lord (and it surely is), then we can say with absolute certainty that such an important and
lasting step as marriage must be controlled by Him and He will certainly indicate His will
in this matter, if we will only have patience and wisdom to await His leading and
providing. Failure to do this not only means unhappiness and frustration, but spiritual
decline and backsliding, and a life of no real testimony for the Lord Who has redeemed
us.
This may sound harsh and unsympathetic, but it is not really so. As with Paul of old,
we wish to save believers from "trouble in the flesh". Is not the Lord worth trusting in
this matter, and for everything else in this life?