Questioner

I am in 100% agreement of how a wife can win her unbelieving husband to Christ. I have followed all of the Biblical ways for man years. My issue is he does not allow me to fellowship or attend church AT ALL! I do submit, I treat him with gentleness & kindness. I do not condemn him but lovingly try to make him see where he has made wrong decisions and I include "we" not "you" made a mistake because I am there to help him make decisions but he doesn't always listen to my advice so "we" take the fall for his errors. I get upset but not at him. I so want to fellowship and attend church regularly, now what???
 

Answer

You are commanded to be in fellowship and worship regularly, 

"Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another --  and all the more as you see the Day approaching."  [Hebrews 10:25]

This is where you need to obey God and not man--not even your husband.  You are not a slave to your husband but a helper.  He cannot make you sin, nor prevent you from worshipping God.  You need to lovingly let him know that you love Him, but that you love your Christ more than him, and must be obedient to Christ and His Word.  If this upsets your husband and causes him to even abandon your marriage, then it is in God's hand, for God tells us:

"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife [husband] and children, his brothers and sisters -- yes, even his own life --  he cannot be my disciple."  [Luke 14:26]

The key to understanding Luke 14:26 is,

"Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;"  [Matthew 10:37]

You need to start attending a true church on a regular basis as soon as possible.
 
"We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name," he said. "Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man's blood."  Peter and the other apostles replied: "We must obey God rather than men!"  [Acts 5:28-29]
 
Also, in the passage of the Bible where it calls women to be submissive to their husbands in order to try to win them to Christ (1 Peter 3:1-6), it says:
 
"...like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her master. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear."  [1 Peter 3:6]
 

From the John MacArthur Study Bible: concerning this passage:

 
"Peter’s instruction to the wife is not to be intimidating or fearful, but as a principle, she is to submit to her husband. This precludes any coercion to sin, disobedience to God’s Word, or imposition of physical harm (cf. Acts 4:18–20; 5:28,29; Titus 1:6)."
 

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "Tony Capoccia's Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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