Instead of ignoring this question, I helped to point them toward a good way to avoid that and many other dangers involved in marriage. While you can not avoid every danger out there, you can limit the possibilities. We often spend all of our time talking about divorce and remarriage doctrine rather than helping our young people prepare for a successful marriage and then helping those who are married to make it work. That is a huge mistake, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I talked to them about the importance of spending a large amount of time getting to know the person before marriage. Meet the family, learn everything you can about their past, present, and plans and hopes for the future. I impressed upon them that it is essential to marry a Christian, but that even that is no promise of clear sailing. Christians have pasts and some of them are not pleasant. They may have been vying with Paul to be chief of sinners before becoming a Christian. Even those who grew up in a Christian home may have been exposed to all kinds of sinful habits that they are still struggling with.
Now that homosexual marriage has been legalized in several states there will be problems that will arise in dealing with people who may be converted out of that sinfulness. What do you tell a young woman who was a lesbian and was married to another woman in one of these states, but who now wants to become a Christian and go straight and might want to find a Christian man and marry and have a family? Many would not even know where to begin. Our children may have to deal with these kinds of strange circumstances and no telling what others that we can’t imagine. The first century church had to deal with new problems on a continual basis, and they might have had some similar problems to those of our society. The church in Corinth had members that had come from all kinds of sinful backgrounds including homosexuality, and it was a challenge for them to keep going in the right direction without falling back into their old sinful habits.
How can you prepare for something you can’t even imagine? It isn’t easy, but the best way is to have a deep understanding of Biblical principles so that you can apply them to different circumstances. The concept is fairly simple: there are many things that are not mentioned specifically in the Bible, but that violate principles. When we consider addictions such as gambling, pornography, or even drugs we realize that there is not a verse that says, ‘don’t do _______’, but the Bible does teach us not to be brought under the power of anything, 1 Corinthians 6:12. So, why can’t we learn to do the same thing in all kinds of areas of life? We can, but we often don’t because we don’t know the Bible well enough to actually put two and two together to get four. If we will study and learn the Bible’s teaching and principles better we will make better choices. That is the only way to prepare for things that don’t just have a ‘thou shalt not’ verse.
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