Will God bless the marriage of someone who used to be a fornicator?

Answer:

I suspect you've heard bits and pieces of rumors about what people say about the Bible. Instead of asking where you can read this for yourself, you just accepted the statements as truths. The result is that you a mixture of truth and old wives' tales jumbled in your head. As Paul told Timothy, "But reject profane and old wives' fables, and exercise yourself toward godliness" (I Timothy 4:7).

Just to illustrate the point, exactly what is meant by a "blessed marriage?" And where do you find in the Scriptures that God promises people blessed marriages?

Fornication is a sin. It is not worse and no greater than any other sin. All sins can be forgiven if a person turns away from them. " "But if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him; because of the righteousness which he has done, he shall live. Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?" says the Lord GOD, "and not that he should turn from his ways and live?" " (Ezekiel 18:21-23). Notice that God does use the word "forgive" the way men do. When God forgives there is no holding the past against the person. Now, that doesn't mean the results of our sin are erased, or that our memories of what we did disappear. But God doesn't treat us differently because we used to be sinners.

The answer would be much different for people who commit sin and yet never turn away from it. There are people who have sex before marriage, who then eventually get married, but they never changed their mind about their past. They are no longer committing fornication because they are married, but they still don't think that what they did was wrong. In such a case, it is foolish for people to think that God is going to do them favors when they take stands against God's teachings. "You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God" (James 4:3-4).

The Corinthians were involved in all sorts of sins before they became Christians. "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God" (I Corinthians 6:9-11).

So because of your past sins, you may end up dealing with a disease that we can't cure, a child, or memories you would rather forget. You might have to work a bit harder to overcome some of these difficulties, but it does not mean you are condemned to have an unhappy marriage. Whether your marriage will be happy depends more on who you marry and whether the two of you work toward following God's advice to make your marriage a happy one. It isn't about your past, it is about your future.