Going to Jesus

Daily Thoughts

 Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:

• Collection

  Thoughts for the Morning Thoughts for the Evening Random Thoughts

• Month

  January February March April May June July August September October November December

• Day

  10-01 Following Jesus to Pentecost 10-02 “Hate Speech” 10-03 Not Far from the Kingdom 10-04 The Rest of the Story. . . . 10-05 Love Gives People a Chance 10-06 Taking the Lord’s Name in Vain 10-07 Why So Fast? 10-08 This is That! 10-09 The Worm of Bitter Regret 10-10 “The Lifter Up of My Head.” 10-11 The Gift of Various Tongues 10-12 Who Is Your Family? 10-13 Excited or Worried? 10-14 The Only Holy Thing that Can Be Destroyed 10-15 The Best Years 10-16 You Can Do It 10-17 Liberty to Choose 10-18 Godless 10-19 God’s Law in Our Hearts 10-20 Three Required Things 10-21 “Born Again” 10-22 God Bears Witness 10-23 Timing Is Everything 10-24 Slaveholder 10-25 “Messenger” 10-26 No Power Left 10-27 “Owe No Man Anything” 10-28 Loners 10-29 A Better End 10-30 Seeing the Light 10-31 Hating Every False Way

 

Random Thought
10-17

Liberty to Choose

“Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what is there in common between righteousness and lawlessness? What fellowship has light with darkness?”
2Corinthians 6:14

“She is free to marry whom she will, only in the Lord.”
1Corinthians 7:39b

For a child of God to marry an unbeliever is to be “unequally yoked”, and everyone who knows the truth knows that God forbids His children to do so. Even under the law, it was sin for someone in covenant with God to marry someone who was not in covenant with God (Ex. 34:14–16). But the Israelites transgressed God’s commandments often, and their ungodly marriages played a crucial role in the corruption of Israel’s faith and the downfall of Israel as a nation (Ezra 9).

God’s gift of liberty for believers to marry whomever they choose to marry within the kingdom of God carries just as much authority as does God’s commandment against “unequally yoked” marriages. When Paul said that a believer is free to marry whom he will, as long as he marries another believer, Paul was declaring an unalterable law in God’s kingdom. And if God’s will is to grant to His children a liberty of choice in marriage, then He will stand behind whatever choice they make. Their liberty of choice in marriage is a holy gift from God, and no man has the right or the power to countermand it.

Some years ago, a brother and sister whom I knew chose to marry. The brother’s personality was withdrawn and awkward, and the sister’s personality was outgoing and optimistic. Some believers, and even some worldly relatives of that sister warned her that she was making a poor choice of mates, but her mind was made up. They even came to me, asking me to intervene, but I insisted on her liberty to choose whom she would. They eventually married, and within two months, the sister came to me, wanting some way out of the marriage, but I could not agree to it. She had exercised her right under God’s law to choose whom she would as a mate, and now, she was bound by the same law of God to be the best wife she could be. God stood with her in her liberty to choose, and He stood with her husband when she saw what a poor choice she had made. To this day, I am sure, there are those who hold me responsible, in part, for the awful suffering that sister went through before that foolish man abandoned her and the Lord, but God’s law had made her free to choose, and I had no authority from God to take that liberty from her.

Listen to me, young people. When you come to the age of marriage, God will stand behind your choice of a mate as much as He stood behind His prophets. At the same time, remember that once that choice is made, God will stand behind that choice, even if you would change your mind. Choose wisely. Take counsel, and listen to those who love you and who have the mind of Christ. God will set His seal on the marriage you choose to make, and it is a seal which no man, including yourself, can break.