My wife doesn’t want to study the Bible
Question:
Hello brother. I have a question that I would like to ask and I hope you are able to respond if you have a spare moment.
I foolishly married a woman who "believes in God" and attending Sunday morning worship but that's about it. She doesn't think that she needs to read the Bible or attend any Bible classes. She gauges her relationship with God off her "feelings" as opposed to the Bible and obedience to God's word.
I was departed from the faith for a long time before I got right like the prodigal son, so I am fully aware of the tremendous amount of love, patience, and grace that God bestowed upon for many years by keeping me safe, even though I was separated from him. As such I realize I have to try to exhibit the same towards her. I tried multiple times, to encourage her to participate in Bible classes or to share some lessons with her. The result is that she often closes up, lashes out, and starts talking about divorce.
I'm not sure what to do from this point. As a husband is it my duty to keep trying to talk to her, or should I drop the subject and just continue to try and live right and hope that eventually she might be won over with the understanding that she may never come around?
Answer:
You'll have to consider your wife an unbeliever. Therefore, your focus will have to be on setting the proper example without hounding her. Peter told wives of unbelievers, "In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives, as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior" (I Peter 3:1-2). Fulfill your role as a husband and walk the path that you hope she'll follow you down in the future.
"But to the rest I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her. And a woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to live with her, she must not send her husband away. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy. Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave; the brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace. For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife?" (I Corinthians 7:12-16).
Response:
I appreciate your response. I pray that God gives me the strength, wisdom, and courage to be the man and husband I need to be. Thank you, brother.
