The following “Question“ was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and “Answered“ by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed by Nelly Kaye of Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada, from the tape, GC 1301-E, titled “Bible Questions and Answers Part 7.“  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. ©1976. All Rights Reserved.

Question

Will God bless a believer who willfully marries an unbeliever?

Answer

Now that is a very, very important question. And the answer basically is twofold or really it’s two opposites, "yes" and "no." 

God will bless a believer, because God grants to a believer forgiveness of sin and continual forgiveness. He grants to a believer heaven, he grants to a believer the presence of the Holy Spirit, we are blessed with all blessings in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. So there is a sense in which just being a believer has brought us into contact with the very great blessing of God. 

But I want you to look with me at a book we studied recently, Jude verse 21, and here we go into what I was saying a minute ago, that you can’t answer any theological question without interpreting a verse. But in Jude verse 21, where Jude is speaking very directly to Christians. He tells them how to experience blessing. Back in verse 20, “But you, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Spirit,” now watch, “Keep yourselves in the love of God…” Now that little phrase is the little phrase that I want to pull out. “Keep yourselves in the love of God.” 

You’ll remember when we studied Jude 21 that we noted that what Jude is saying there is that God’s love showers down blessing. And it’s up to us to keep ourselves in the place of blessing. It’s as if God draws a great big circle on His world and says, you get in that circle, and that’s where the blessings come. That’s where it rains blessing. You step out of that circle, God hasn’t changed His blessing, you’ve stepped out of the place of receiving them. 

Or one other illustration we used is the Christian has a bucket, if you hold your bucket upside right you receive blessings, if you turn it upside down all the blessings bounce off. God hasn’t changed, it all depends on what you are doing with your spiritual bucket. And so in any given situation in a Christian’s life, you can ask the question, will a Christian receive blessing? In a very general sense yes, but in a sense of specifics, the only time a Christian receives specific blessing from God is when that Christian is within the circle of blessing. And may I define the circle of blessing, the circle of blessing is surrounded with a line that is one great big "O" and it stands for obedience. And as soon as a Christian steps outside the obedience circle, he forfeits blessing. God never blesses sin. And God never continues to bless in terms of day to day outpouring of special blessing a Christian who willfully acts in sin.

Now, the question is phrased in such a way, "Will God bless a believer who willfully marries and unbeliever?" There is an awareness of the fact that God has forbidden this and that's correct. To show you a couple of illustrations of that notice 
1 Corinthians 7:39. And you will see a phrase at the end of it that says, “The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband lives” In this particular chapter Paul is discussing why it is better to be single, if you have the gift of singleness. If God has given you the gift of singleness, you might as well enjoy it. I wrote an article on Being Single. It’s in this month’s Moody Monthly if you want to get it. So this is the last point of my article. But it says, the one good reason to stay single is that once you get married it’s for life. "The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband lives." This is God’s pattern. But if the husband is dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will..." And then comes this qualifier that God wants made very clear about marriage, "...only in the Lord." Marriage is to be "only in the Lord." 

And if you were to go to Second Corinthians 6:14, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Satan?” (that’s what that word is referring to) “what part has he that believes with one who doesn’t believe? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God; as God has said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” 

So, there is no fellowship between a believer and an unbeliever, that is an unequal yoke. God forbids that a believer marry an unbeliever. If you go ahead and do that willfully, purposefully, pointedly, you will step outside the circle of obedience. A Pastor friend of mine called me on the phone, Friday, and he said I have a situation in my church that is just breaking my heart. And I just want to share it with you and have you pray with me about it. I married two couples, he said, in my church and somewhere along the line in the time since I have married them they have swapped wives. And they are now living with each other’s wife. And they have now come back and said they know it’s wrong and they have repented of the sin, but they don’t love their wife, they love the new one they’ve swapped for and they want to get a divorce and be remarried and maintain their position of leadership in the church. And their justification is the fact that they are repentant, and they have confessed it. 

And of course the answer is they have also forfeited the blessing of God, and leadership is a blessing, because they have stepped outside the circle of obedience. So anytime a believer steps out of the circle of obedience he forfeits the right to God’s blessing. 

Now our gracious and loving and merciful God will still be kind enough to grant some blessing, but at the same time you can be sure you will receive His chastening hand, because as soon as you step over that line you run smack into the chastening of God.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's “MacArthur’s Questions and Answers“ by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
Box 119
Columbus, New Jersey, USA, 08022
Our websites: www.biblebb.com and www.gospelgems.com
Email: tony@biblebb.com
Online since 1986