MARRIAGE: What We Should Have The Courage To Say!

"You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together."

Deuteronomy 22:10

With Christmas as one of the most popular times during the year for weddings, we offer the following marriage ceremony between a Christian and a non-Christian for your convenience.

Dear Friends, we are gathered here today to witness a disaster in the making. For reasons none of us can understand, Martha here has decided she wants to be married to Chester.

Martha – church-goer, hymn-singer, happy, raised right – is throwing it all away in order to marry Chet here, a smug, ungodly rascal who gets with his buddies and makes jokes about Christians. Why Chester and Martha want to lock themselves into marriage is beyond me.

You two will be unequally yoked. In Deuteronomy 22:10 God tells farmers not to do that. An ox and a donkey or a mule and a cow are different animals. They can’t work together. Over in the New Testament, in 2 Corinthians 6:14, God tells brides and grooms not to make the same mistake; for Christians not to marry unbelievers.

Now, the reason He addresses this to you, Martha, is because, as a believer, He sort of assumes that you will obey Him. He knows that Chester here doesn’t pretend to do so. But if you choose not to, you shouldn’t bother to call yourself a Christian.

The Lord Jesus once asked some people, “Why do you call me ‘Lord’ and not do what I say?” He does not address this command to Chester here, because since you are an unbeliever, it wouldn’t do any good anyway. You’re not obeying anything else He says. Why would you obey this?

So, what am I doing here performing your wedding? I’ve asked myself that twenty-eight times in the last two weeks. Probably because Martha’s folks are leaders in our church, and I thought it would anger them if I declined. And some people think, maybe we can reach Chester this way.

Frankly, I’m not too sure disobeying the clear teaching of Scripture is a good way of reaching anybody for the Lord.

Well, let us get on with it. In a few minutes Cherry Dunn will sing the song you have selected for this special day: Torn Between Two Lovers and the theme for Titanic. Then I’ll say some religious words over you as we all pretend that somehow God is blessing what He has forbidden. You will exchange rings and vows and saliva, and leave here seeking the lowest common denominator in your values, your beliefs, and your convictions.

If this marriage works out, it may be the biggest disaster of all, because other Christian-pagan lovebirds will point to you as role models. It’s a frightening thought.

So you will understand if I pray for the success of your marriage, while I pull for it to be awful enough to warn away future travelers down this embattled road.

[Joe N. McKeever, “Disaster in the Making,” SBC LIFE, December 1999, p.6]

So let us pray … and pray … and pray … .

The article above is a parody of a pastor’s comments to a supposedly born-again Christian bride and her unabashed, non-believing fiancée, whom he will shortly join in holy matrimony. Since it says what most of us feel, it is provided in its entirety, just as it appeared in the publication below.

Christianity, Illustrations,
Marriage, Religion, Unequal yoke