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Thursday May 15, 2008

Category: Bible Q&A

Bible Q&A for May 15

My husband and I have been together for 11 1/2 years, we've been married for 6 1/2. We have 2 beautiful children. My husband has recently been born again and now thinks our marriage is a sin. He was married before, his wife left him, they did try to get back together and that didn't work. All that happen 16 years ago. Because he was married before, does God honor my marriage ? (This is my first marriage.) Are we living in sin?

Your question is a complex one, and it involves several components. In 1 Cor. 7, Paul advises a Christian person not to divorce their non-Christian spouse because that spouse might indeed be sanctified by the believing partner, and the children of such a marriage are called holy. In other words, Paul hardly suggests that a Christian married to a non-Christian is in any danger of being defiled or living in sin simply because he has a non-believing spouse. If you are also a Christian, but have not had a Christian marriage ceremony, it might allay your husband's fears if you had a service of consecration of your marriage celebrated by a minister.

--Ben Witherington III

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Jeremiah 31:31-4 reports that God will bring a New Covenant that will put God in each of us so we won't need ministers, priests or rabbis. This is a very long process. First the Hebrews needed the Law, given by Moses. The Law was only necessary for a time. Now we can all have the Holy Spirit, the Logos inside ourselves so that we can be freed from the rigidity of the Law. Real Love needs no Laws, just like it needs no priesthood.

Your situation shows why Love over-rides the Law.

Posted by: Andrew Flaxman | May 15, 2008 3:45 PM

God is a forgiving and loving God. We all have made choices in the past that were sinful choices. Whether you had a civil ceremony (as an example before a judge) or if you had a "Christian" ceremony is not the point. Neither is whether your husband was married before. When your husband became born again, God wiped the slate clean. The divorce is not on the register. You are not held accountable for those things in the past. You are however accountable for things that you learn from that point forward. If you make a mistake and sin, repent, ask for forgiveness, and ask God to forget it, to remove it from his memory. But you must live by the Word from the point in time that you are redeemed.

God is not trying to keep people out of heaven; He is trying to get them into heaven.

There are many scriptures concerning marriage and how you should live your life within your marriage, but remember this, when Jesus was confronted about a woman who was prostitute, He told the people you who are without sin cast the first stone. No one did.

Your marriage is between you and your husband and God; no one else. Don't let others pressure you with condemnation and don't condemn yourself. Get into the Word and live it.

Posted by: Matt Wright | May 16, 2008 5:23 PM

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Thursday May 15, 2008

Bible Q&A for May 15

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Thursday May 15, 2008

Bible Q&A for May 15

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