Bible Text: Selected Scripture | Preacher: Pastor Joe Ricchuiti | Series: God’s Design for Marriage

Recap of 9/29/13:

1.  Rounding out the “Marriage Killers” is number 11, an assortment of eight threats to marriage, which includes the following:  over commitment and physical exhaustion; suffocating jealousy; financial mismanagement including overuse of credit cards; interfering in-laws; unrealistic expectations; substance abuse and addictions; unbalanced attention to business or career success; and an unequal yoke.

2.  Paul addresses the issue of an unequal yoke in 2 Corinthians 6:14-16.  Thought the primary issue there is the need to separate from false teachers.  Dr. Charles Ryrie writes:  “Primarily this relates to separation from the false teachers troubling the church, though it may apply to other alliances like marriage and business.”  David Lowery, in the Bible Knowledge Commentary, has said:  “…religious unbelievers might lead believers astray from ‘sincere and pure devotion to Christ’ (2 Cor 11:3) and the fact concerned Paul greatly.  A believer can be rightly yoked only with Christ. (Mt 11:29-30.”  When a believer enters into a marriage relationship with an unbeliever, unless the unbelieving spouse should be converted (which, though it can happen, is not at all assured) their spiritual life and growth will be severely affected, not to mention the effect upon children born into that family. If you are single, trust God for a believing marriage partner.

3.  In the tongue-in-check online article, “Trash Your Marriage in Eight Easy Steps,” (www.probe.org) Sue Bohlin offers the following eight “suggestions:”

-be selfish (insist on your own way, make demands instead of requests)

-pick at each other (be annoying, be critical, insist on the last word)

-let the kids be more important than your mate

-show disrespect, especially in public; complain about your spouse to your friends, co-workers

-refuse to meet each other’s emotional needs (see His Needs, Her Needs by Willard Harley)

-treat your friends better than your spouse

-husbands, be a pansy (passive, uninvolved); wives, be his mother (treat him like a child)

-when you’re angry, blow up, call names, dredge up the past, lose control