Can the marriage of an atheist work? Is it possible to have a marriage that lasts without divorce?
Question:
Do you think atheist marriages can work? And toward Christian marriages: do you still have to make it work, or can you just be confident it will work since the only reason for a divorce would be cheating?
I know a couple -- she's atheist, he's agnostic -- and they intend to marry. But she's worried. She said she doesn't want to marry to have a divorce in the future, like most people, but to me, it seems unlikely. It's very rare to see couples who married and never divorced. None of them intend to divorce, but can that be taken seriously? Do you know any atheist couples who are examples?
Answer:
Despite the world's trend, most Christians whom I know have not been divorced. It is not because they are better than anyone else, it is because they are committed to living life as God commands. Good marriages that last take a lot of effort. Good marriages don't just happen. Couples still face hardships and difficulty, but where others run from their problems, Christians tend to work through them and as a result, build a better relationship. "Now to the married I command, yet not I but the Lord: A wife is not to depart from her husband. But even if she does depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband. And a husband is not to divorce his wife" (I Corinthians 7:10-11).
Can others, including atheists, have such marriages? Yes, but they start with a problem. They don't have a moral reason to make a marriage work beyond their own desire. There may come times in a marriage where one or the other of the couple simply doesn't want to make the marriage work at that moment. What carries the couple beyond that point? What motivates them to reach a higher point than what they've already obtained?
Divorce isn't a given. It is what people run to when they don't want to work on their relationship with another person.
