Covenant Reformed News – October 2007 • Volume XI, Issue 18
This article from Covenant Reformed News examines the biblical requirement that Christians marry "only in the Lord" based on 1 Corinthians 7:39 and related passages, arguing that believers must not marry unbelievers or the ungodly. It addresses both the preventive principle (avoiding such unions) and the pastoral care of those already in mixed marriages, citing Westminster Confession support for the doctrine while maintaining that divorce is not the answer for already-existing unequal yokes.
Marrying in the Lord I Corinthians 7:39 requires that if a Christian marries it must be “only in the Lord.” Most obviously this forbids marrying unbelievers and therefore dating them, because the purpose of courtship is to ascertain if it is God’s will that you marry that person. The sin of professing believers dating and marrying unbelievers led to the apostasy of the antediluvian church and the destruction of the old world by the flood (Gen. 6:1-2)! Disobeying the command of God by marrying...