Differences

I don’t remember much about my first brother-in-law. He and my sister were married a very short time. After their divorce, they both went on to separate lives that did not intersect.

But, knowing him taught me several life lessons:

1 – Mothers really don’t care about clean underwear when they come to the emergency room to see their child. They care about their child, period.

2 – Loosing a portion of one’s body does not mean life is over. Adjustments are made, and life goes on.

3 – 2 Corinthians 6:14 applies to marriage, period.

Late in his teens, a careless moment while hunting cost him his leg. His mother displayed what every mother does - love and concern for her child’s life, not the bloody rags that were cut off of him. He made the adjustment to wearing his prosthesis. He enjoyed sports – particularly motorcycles and sailboats. The prosthesis became such a part of his life that once he forgot about it when he went over the side of a sailboat to check a line. Yep, they fill up with water and are very heavy.

Since both he and my sister were members of Christian churches, they thought II Corinthians 6:14 did not apply to them, but it was evident it did when they selected a neutral college campus chapel for their wedding and neither one had their family pastor officiate.

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? (2 Corinthians 6:14)

From the very beginning of their marriage, differences mattered. It became an even larger drag on their lives. While they both believed in Christ, they came to Him for different reasons. The doctrines of their congregations were vastly different.

On the one hand, her church doctrine taught that For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:10)

Her church also believed that Paul’s answer to the jailer’s question holds true today: And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:30-31)

His church did not. They were not equally yoked, for both were unbelievers in the other’s doctrine. To solve the differences, they dropped out of church. Before long there were other activities where one or the other found it easier not to attend. Quickly, they drew apart and found no common ground to stand on.

I do pray that our Junior High Girls will heed lessons on being equally yoked. I pray that they understand that decisions made as young people determine paths for the remainder of their lives. Differences are not solved by dropping out.