THE QUESTIONS SINGLES ASK 11
Welcome back again to the November edition of the Single’s World. In this edition, I will like to answer more questions. May the Lord give us the right understanding in the name of Jesus Christ.
Question: The Bible says that we should not marry an unbeliever but I Corinthians 7: 12 says otherwise. What do you say concerning this?
Answer: I Corinthians 7:12 says, “For the rest of you who are in mixed marriages-Christian married to non-Christian- we have no explicit command from the Master. So, this is what you must do. If you are a man with a wife who is not a believer but who still wants to live with you, hold on to her”- MSG. The Bible is not giving a license to a Christian to marry an unbeliever here. God cannot contradict Himself. If II Corinthians 6:14 says a Christian should not marry an unbeliever, I Corinthians 7:12 cannot therefore, say a Christian can marry an unbeliever.
Paul was talking to Christians who were into mixed marriages; that is, Christians who were already married to unbelievers. The Bible says in I Cor. 7:12, “If any brother hath a wife that believeth not.” In this case, the Christian Brother had already married an unbelieving wife. The Bible does not say that a Christian brother should marry an unbeliever as a wife or that a Christian sister should marry an unbeliever as a husband. The scripture is for a Christian Brother who is already married to an unbelieving wife. Paul wanted him to know how to handle the problem associated with that. Paul was telling such brother not to send the unbelieving wife out of the house if she is pleased to live with him.
Try and study the entire I Corinthians chapter 7. Paul addressed the diverse marriage issues that came up in the Corinthian Church then which are also applicable to us today. The point here is similar to I John 2:2 where the Bible says “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” In this scripture, the Bible says, don’t sin. It is like don’t marry an unbeliever. It also says but if you sin (that is not the end of your life), you have an advocate. If you repent, He will forgive you.
That does not give us the liberty to be committing sin just because we have an advocate. That is why I John 3:8 says “He that committeth sin is of the devil” (Those who make a practice of sin are straight from the Devil, the pioneer in the practice of sin- MSG). That you have a Senior Advocate as your lawyer does not give you the liberty to be committing crimes anyhow. The point here according to the Bible is that don’t marry an unbeliever but if you are already married to an unbeliever, don’t send that unbeliever away if she wants to live with you. And if both of you married as unbelievers and now the husband is born again and the wife is not, you are told not to send the wife away provided she is ready to live with you. So, if you are married ignorantly to a witch, don’t divorce her provided she wants to stay with you. Even if you married an unbeliever intentionally against the will of God, you cannot send him or her away even if you are not enjoying the marriage. So, the Bible is against a Christian getting married to an unbeliever.
Question: My father married two wives. He was born again then but he was not deep in Christianity. And now he is filled with the Holy Spirit, and understands better the word of God. Can he be forgiven since he now knows it as a sin?
Answer: Yes! God will forgive every sinner that repents of his sin genuinely. I John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Your father married two wives in the time of ignorance, and now that his eyes are opened to the truth of the word of God, let him confess his sin of adultery and polygamy to God, and God will forgive Him.
Acts 17:30 says, “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent” The prodigal son obtained forgiveness after he had repented. The woman that the Pharisees caught in adultery was forgiven by Jesus Christ. In John 8:11, Jesus told the woman, “Neither do I condemn thee: go and sin no more.” The woman was pardoned, but she was asked not to sin again. So, God will forgive your father.
However, I think your father should make some restitution by keeping only to the first wife that he married legally. Ezra the priest told the people of Israel to put away their strange wives, and they obeyed him- Ezra 10:10-19. The second wife is an adulteress in your father’s house. Your father must separate himself from her, while he arranges for how to take care of her and his children if any. And if the second wife remarries, your father may be free from her upkeep. That is restitution.
Question: A man dated a lady for two years. And as soon as the lady came to that man’s life, things started going wrong for the man. The man experienced series of accidents. What can such a man do to solve the problem?
Answer: The best thing to do in this matter is to pray, and ask God to reveal the source of the problems to him. Don’t hastily conclude that it is the woman that is behind it. She may be the one, and she may also not be the one. It may be coincidental. The devil might not want her to get married. That may be the reason why the devil is initiating evil into the man’s life to make it look like it is the woman that is responsible. On the other hand, the woman may be an agent of darkness.
Besides, the devil may not want the man to be married in life. The man may have a spirit wife who will not allow him to marry another woman on earth. So, each time the man has a woman in his life, the spirit wife will strike with evil incidents to make the man chase away the woman that is competing with the spirit wife. To know the root cause of this is for the man to wait on the Lord in prayer and fasting, and seek the face of the Lord on the cause.
Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” Our God who knows all secrets will reveal the cause of this problem. Matthew 10:26 says, “For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.” God will reveal the secrets of the man’s life if the man will pray. If the man is the problem, let him go for deliverance. If the woman is the problem, he may separate himself from her. After all, they are not married yet.
By the grace of God, we will continue from here next month. Please, don’t forget to send me your comments. Till then, God bless.
Pastor Jide Ajidahun.
