A) ABSOLUTES.

B) EXCEPTIONS.

C) ONCE MARRIED.

D) THE PROBLEM.

E) THE SOLUTION.

 

 

A) ABSOLUTES

 

 

The very first consideration towards any marriage proposal is, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers:  for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?”  Second Corinthians 6:14.

 

This comes to us from Deuteronomy 7:3:  “Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.”  See also Ezra 9:12.

 

Also, the principle is set forth in God’s creation of mankind, in that He only made one man to be with one woman (Gen. 1:27).  This is spelled out in various verses.  Here is Malachi 2:15:  “And did not He [God] make one [pair]?  See also Matthew 19:4; Mark 10:6; First Corinthians 7:2.

 

Genesis 2:24:  “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife:  and they shall be one flesh.”  This instruction is backed up in Malachi 2:14 and by our Lord in Matthew 19:5-6; Mark 10:7-9; Ephesians 5:31.

 

In regards to becoming “one flesh,” consider First Corinthians 6:16:  “What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.”

 

Other instructions are First Corinthians 7:10:  “And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband.”

 

First Timothy 5:14:  “I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.”

 

 

B) EXCEPTIONS

 

 

The instruction is to be married to one person forever.  By contrast, First Corinthians 7:39 teaches us, “The wife is bound by the Law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.”  Notice the instruction, “only in the Lord.”  Meaning again and still, “not” to be “unequally yoked.”

 

This same instruction is given in Romans 7:2-3.  “(2) For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the Law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the Law of her husband. (3) So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress:  but if her husband be dead, she is free from that Law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.”

 

However, we have this instruction in First Corinthians 7:11:  “But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband:  and let not the husband put away his wife.”

 

Should you marry a non-believer we have this instruction in First Peter 3:1-2 & 7:  “(1) Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the Word, they also may without the Word be won by the conversation of the wives; (2) While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. (7)  Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.”

 

 

C) ONCE MARRIED

 

 

First Corinthians 7:4:  “The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband:  and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife.”  See Hosea 3:3.

 

First Corinthians 7:5:  “Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.”

 

Remembering that, “Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.”  First Corinthians 6:13.  And verses 18-20:  “(18) Flee fornication.  Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. (19) What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? (20) For ye are bought with a price:  therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

 

Also, consider Matthew 5:32 & 19:9 (repeated in Mark 10-11-12):

“(5:32) But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery:  and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.”

“(19:9) And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery:  and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.”

 

See Genesis 20:3; Jeremiah 3:1 & 8.

 

 

D) THE PROBLEM

 

 

First Corinthians 7:34:  “There is difference also between a wife and a virgin.  The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit:  but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.”

 

First Corinthians 9:27:  “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection:  lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”

 

 

E) THE SOLUTION

 

 

Jesus, in regards to staying married your entire life to only one man or one woman stated in Matthew 19:11:  “All mencannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given.”

 

Paul’s solution was not to be married.  “(7) For I would that all men were even as I myself. (8) I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I. (9) But if they cannot contain, let them marry:  for it is better to marry than to burn.”  First Corinthians 7:7-9.