Watch Your Associations in These Days

MARRY "ONLY IN THE LORD"

Watching their associations is particularly important for single Christians who want to get married.  God's Word clearly counsels:  "Do not become unevenly yoked with unbelievers. For what fellowship do righteousness and lawlessness have? Or what sharing  does light have with darkness?  (2 Corinthians 6:14) The Bible counsels  God's servants who are seeking a marriage mate to marry "only in the Lord," that is, to marry only a dedicated, baptized worshipper of Jehovah who lives according to Scriptural teachings.  (1 Corinthians 7:39) By marrying fellow believers, Christians gain companions who are dedicated to Jehovah and will help them maintain their integrity to him.. 

Jehovah knows what is best for his servants, and he has been consistent in stating his viewpoint regarding marriage. Note his easily understood command to Israel through Moses.  With reference to the inhabitants of surrounding nations-people who did not serve Jehovah-the Israels were instructed:  "You must not form any marriage alliances with them.  Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons.  For they will turn your sons away  from following me to serve other gods; then Jehovah's anger will blaze against you, and he will swiftly annihilate you." -Deuteronomy 7:3, 4. 

Early in the kingship of David's son Solomon, the younger man prayed for wisdom, and God gave it to him in abundance. King Solomon thus became famous as the wise ruler of a prosperous land. In fact, when the queen of Sheba visited Solomon, she exclaimed:  "I did not put faith in the reports until I had come and seen it with my own eyes.  And look! I had not been told the half. You have far surpassed in wisdom and prosperity the report that I heard." (1 Kings 10:7) But Solomon became a sad example of what can happen when a person ignores God's command not to marry an unbeliever. -Ecclesiastes 4:13. 

Despite everything that God had done for him, Solomon ignored the divine command not to marry women from surrounding nations, individuals who did not worship Jehovah.   Solomon "loved many foreign women" and eventually had 700 wives and 300 concubines.  What was the result?  In Solomon's old age, his pagan wives  "inclined his heart to follow other gods, . . .and Solomon did what was bad in the eyes of Jehovah." (1 Kings 11:1-6) Solomon's bad associations undermined his wisdom and caused him to fall away from true worship.  what a warning that is for Christians who  might  think about  marrying someone who does not love Jehovah!  

What if someone becomes a worshipper of God while married to an unbeliever?  The Bible says:  "You wives be in subjection to your husbands, so that if any are not obedient to the word, they may be won without a word through the conduct of their wives." (1 Peter 3:1) Those words  are addressed to Christian wives, but the same words apply to a husband who becomes a worshipper of Jehovah while married to an unbeliever.  The Bible's counsel is clear:  Be a good mate, and live up to God's high standards for marriage.  Many unbelieving mates have accepted the truth  because of observing a husband or a wife who changed after complying with God's requirements.  

Next time: Watch Your Associations in These Days - ASSOCIATE WITH THOSE WHO LOVE JEHOVAH

From the Watchtower magazine