A reader asks:
I'm in love with someone who practices Islam, not Christianity. I know there are concerns about marrying an unbeliever, but I don't want to miss out on sharing Christ with her. What do you think?
My answer:
You are mixing two things… witnessing and marriage. Marriage is the God-ordained image of Christ loving His Bride, the Church. To marry an unbeliever is to destroy that image. To marry an unbeliever is to be tied (or "yoked" as the Bible says which is the picture of two plow animals hooked together for common work) to someone pulling in a different direction. just like Israel tried to appease the Canaanites by allowing their idol worship, marriage to an unbeliever opens the door to the destruction of your faith; it is a monumental compromise of your faith that will certainly lead to spiritual peril and marital disaster. Experience shows clearly that you are far more likely to compromise or abandon your faith than you are to convert her to yours in all authenticity.
Marriage is NOT to be entered into as a witnessing opportunity.
The stories are never ending about people who convert to a religion just to land a spouse, then abandon it later on. As a Christian you should not consider marriage to an unbeliever or even a new Believer until you can securely determine they didn't convert just to marry you. It is playing with spiritual fire and you will not escape unburned.
Marrying a Muslim has even more concerns. You are an apostate and infidel in the eyes of Islam. She will be shunned by all genuinely faithful Muslims and she will most likely be disowned by her family if they are serious adherents. It is a mistake for a Christian to marry a non-Christian PERIOD (no gray area), and though it sounds harsh, you would be categorically sinning and inviting disaster to do so.
Most people will ignore an answer like this they don't want to hear. Love is truly blind for many. I wish I could give you a sugary "happily ever after" answer. Perhaps you will be one of the rare people who will hear a hard Biblical answer and let it dictate your choices, rather than allowing your feelings to reign supreme. Put God first even though it can be very hard. He will bless your faithfulness.
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