Good Weekend to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
At this time of year something particularly special is happening, at least in America. Can you guess what I’m thinking about? Many Colleges and Universities are reconvening for the 23-24 school year and for thousands of College Freshman that means saying goodbyes to home and their family and launching a whole new life as a young adult College student. I wonder what your memories are for those first days after you left home for College or Military service or starting your career?
This weekend my wife and I are experiencing this as our eldest granddaughter was dropped off at her college yesterday and this weekend begins her college experience. Life is changing for her by the minute and within a few weeks she’ll be a different young woman! We are watching closely, trusting her 18 years of parental/family nurturing and her personal relationship with Jesus Christ will prove to be sufficient to keep her anchored in truth and moral wisdom as she is suddenly surrounded by a young adult world so foreign to what she has known at home!
Of course, one of the main challenges our granddaughter will face in these next few days will be many brand-new relationships. People from all over the world will be in her college, and because it’s located in a multi-cultural city, she’ll be surrounded by many things she’s likely never seen before. Perhaps some of these new friends will become lifelong friends. In my case, I met my wife her FIRST day of college and we never dated anyone else, and we’ve have been married 50 years!
Amazing things can happen the first week of college and sadly, as I’m sure you know, not everything is honorable. Did you know that an amazingly high number of young freshmen girls and guys give up their virginity in their first week or two of college? Parties seek to welcome students into this new world of college life and all too often, in order to feel accepted or make new friends quickly, or perhaps experiment with the freedom of being away from under parental oversight, way too many young people succumb to a wide range of powerful temptations in those first few days at college. Temptations which they’ll regret the rest of their lives.
As you know we’ve been with the apostle Paul as he’s writing to a group of fairly new Christians in the great city of Corinth. He knows these people because he’s the person who first brought them the Gospel a few years before when he visited and spent 18 months teaching the people in Corinth about Jesus Christ. (Acts 18:11) But now, Paul has received word that some of those friends were drifting morally and spiritually, back into lifestyles that were not God honoring, thus this letter of challenge and encouragement Paul is writing to them.
Paul is in his 7th chapter dealing with a major issue, both then in the mid first century and now in 2023. Let’s join him as Paul is dictating and Timothy is likely scribing Paul’s words onto the parchments: “If any believer in Christ has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her. And if a woman [believer in Christ] has a husband who is not a believer in Jesus and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him.” (1 Cor. 7:12,13)
You see my friends, as Paul was sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Corinth, many people believed God’s truth and became Christians, followers of Jesus. Often for Corinthian married couples, one believed in Jesus but not their spouse. Tension often arose of course, and some were thus using this as an excuse to leave their marriage covenant and get a divorce.
But Paul is urging them NOT to bail out on their marriage but rather stay true to their marriage covenant and seek to help their unbelieving spouse see the positive difference the Holy Spirit makes in a new Christian. Do you know anyone in this situation today?
Now friends, let’s be careful not to confuse this with instructions from Paul in his second letter to these same Corinthian Christians when he wrote: “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer in Jesus have in common with an unbeliever?” (2 Cor. 6:14,15) ‘Belial’, by the way, is an ancient name for Satan. Paul’s wisdom here is especially for people considering getting married. It can also be applied to people considering forming an equal business partnership. Through Paul, God is saying something very clear… ‘don’t yoke yourself with someone who is fundamentally different from yourself spiritually. Your values are so different you will eventually be in strong disagreement on many fundamental things.’ Do you see this as the difficult reality someone you know is facing? Were they warned before they made their commitment?
So, the Biblical principal is clear, isn’t it? Those who come to trust in Jesus Christ and seek to honor God with their lives while already married, if their spouse is as they were before, NOT a believer in Jesus, they should remain in that marriage, honoring their marriage covenant, and living for God’s glory.
Those who are followers of Jesus Christ and not yet married should be careful to covenant themselves in marriage ONLY to someone who is also a follower of Jesus and the two of them should make every effort that their marriage honors God in every way for the rest of their lives.
Now back to Paul’s first letter and his continued instructions: “If the unbeliever leaves the marriage, let it be so. The Christian brother or sister is not bound in such circumstances: God has called us to live in peace.” (1 Cor. 7:15) Paul is referring to the situation where one person in the marriage trusts in Jesus Christ and becomes a Christian follower of Jesus, while their spouse remains a nonbeliever.
If the nonbeliever chooses to divorce the believer and turn away from their covenant of marriage, the remaining Christian has been abandoned and is thus permitted by God to marry again, should God provide them a Jesus following spouse.
Finally, these additional instructions from Paul for the couples who are married but one is a Christian and one is not. “The unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his Christ following wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified by her Christ following husband.” (1 Cor. 7:14) Now let’s be careful here friends. The word “sanctified” does not mean God views the unbeliever as purified by being married to a Christian. Oh no, we understand we are all born with a sin nature and are sinners regardless of the family we are born into or the person we’re married to. We each are accountable for our own sin problem and the only way for our sin forgiveness and salvation is our repentance of our sin and fully trust in Jesus Christ to save us through His atonement death and resurrection.
So, what does Paul mean here? I believe God wants us to understand that because the Holy Spirit lives within the Christian, the presence and blessing of God will be in that marriage and home, as the Christian spouse lives a God honoring life, regardless of the spiritual or moral condition of their unbelieving spouse. Do you know any married couples like that?
Now we’ve covered a lot of important God truth today haven’t we, my friends? But I’m sure you’ve noticed this chapter is contrary to public opinion in most parts of the world, thus God is calling us to understand God’s design for a God honoring marriage and how to bring God’s truth into every marriage and pre-marriage relationship.
As we reflect on this, we of course can see God’s Presence and Power are needed for these truths to be lived daily in our lives, and I found a great song for us to consider:
Today’s Scripture is 1 Cor. 7:10-15.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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