Why does God tell us not to marry an unbeliever?

GUEST POST by Hannah Sipress

Have you ever thought about your future mate? Is he/she going to be tall or

short, plain or handsome? How about his or her faith?

Now, assuming that you are a born again believer, and that you have read your Bible, you probably know that God said not to be unequally yoked, (2 Cor. 2:14) or in plain English, married to an unbeliever.

Why does God tell us not to marry an unbeliever anyway? I felt compelled to share my thoughts and convictions on this issue, all of which agree with Scripture. Now the first issue to address here is the question why. Why does God command me not to do this?

Number one. In the beginning, God had planned for marriage to consist of two people, one male, and one female, who had a mutual love for God, and each other, and wanted to work together to further God's kingdom. Each one would leave their family, to come together and create a new family, one that serves God. If you are married to an unbeliever, you cannot share in this. Your partner will not understand your love for God, or why you do things differently from the world. He will not understand why you want to teach your children certain things.

Number two. Have you ever been in a place where you're the only Christian around, and the people around you are doing things that you know you shouldn't be doing? You want to obey God and not do those things, but its really hard when there are no other Christians around to support you. Well, that's kind of what being married to an unbeliever is like. Your partner might be a good person, but he still does not hold all the same beliefs that you do. He doesn't give you the same support and understanding that a believer would. It would be very easy to slip into sin without that support.

The next point to hit is, what are the consequences of marrying an unbeliever? Since the Bible says it is wrong, marrying an unbeliever would be a sin. Like any other sin, this will have consequences.

Number one. Your marriage is always going to be lacking something. A mutual love for God is a very important part of marriage, it will decide how you make important decisions in your life. It would be a very lonely life.

Number two. You lose God's blessing. As Christians, we possess God's blessing. But when we walk into a situation, disobeying God, we lose His blessing. (Deuteronomy 11: 26-27) I personally would not want to walk into any situation without the blessing of my heavenly Father, would you?

Number three. Your partner would not share in your eternal life. This is possibly one of the hardest things to face in life. When you become a Christian, you are promised an eternal home in Heaven with God, your partner however, is not. How hard would it be to go into marriage, knowing that if your husband/wife died, he would go to Hell? In some cases, non-believers who have married Christians have been converted during the marriage. However, there is still a huge possibility that they won't, plus it is still going against what God wants.

Now, think about this in the context of dating. You may think, hey, wait a minute here! Dating is not the same thing as marriage! And you're right, it's not. If though, you are a Christian, dating is not meant to be something you do that's fun during high school, it is meant to help you find your future mate.

Dating a non-Christian during high school, or college, or anytime in your life for that matter, is a very tricky thing to do. So many times, Christians have been blown off course by their non-believer boy/girlfriend. Dating a non-believer, in hopes of bringing them to Christ, often called "missionary dating," is sometimes a widely accepted thing amongst Christians. This, however can be a deadly serious thing to do.

It can bring about many consequences, many of which are similar to the ones in marriage. As a friend of mine has quoted, "Don't hold someone in your arms, that you could not hold in your heart." As you go through whatever stage you are at in life, keep this in mind. If you want to please God, and have good healthy relationships, remember God's guidelines, and make sure that you can be held accountable for whatever relational decisions you make.

God bless!