“Can you understand now why God forbade the Israelites to marry non-Jewish people (Nehemiah 13:23-27)? Those marriages led more Israelites away from God than any other factor we can find in the Old Testament. For a similar reason, God told the Corinthian widows, in I Corinthians 7:39, to only marry another Christian. If it makes sense the second time around, doesn’t it make good advice the first time? Don’t become unequally yoked to a nonbeliever (II Corinthians 6:14-18).”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\t
Answer:<\/h2>\n
While being married to a non-Christian often makes it more difficult for a Christian woman to remain faithful, there is no requirement that Christians — male or female — must only marry a Christian. There are several passages that deal with a Christian married to a non-Christian (I Corinthians 7:12-16; I Peter 3:1-2).<\/p>\n
Nor is there a requirement that a woman must wait for a man to take notice of her first. An example would be Ruth who first attracted the attention of Boaz before he decided that he wanted to marry her.<\/p>\n
There is no set age for when Christians may marry once they have left home. There is an increase in risky pregnancies start when a woman is over 40. But 28 is not considered early in most cultures. The average age in American culture is about 27 right now, but it has only recently risen to that age. For centuries it was about 21.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: You said in “What does a woman do when the Christian men around seem more interested in non-Christian women?“ “While being married to a non-Christian often makes it more difficult for a Christian woman to remain faithful, there is no requirement that Christians — male or female — must only marry a Christian.” But…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[64],"class_list":["post-19913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-marriage"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":17606,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-does-a-woman-do-when-the-christian-men-around-seem-more-interested-in-non-christian-women\/","url_meta":{"origin":19913,"position":0},"title":"What does a woman do when the Christian men around seem more interested in non-Christian women?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 27, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Your site is nice and good for learning for the Christians. You are doing a good job. May the Lord strengthen you to do more. I am very happy to come across your web site while I was searching for a\u00a0hymn, \"God Give Us Christian Homes,\" and I have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20369,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-for-a-christian-to-marry-a-non-believer\/","url_meta":{"origin":19913,"position":1},"title":"Is it wrong for a Christian to marry a non-believer?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In I Corinthians 7:12-14, it doesn't mean a Christian marrying an unbeliever. You need to see the background and the circumstances Paul wrote this letter. Actually the problem in Corinth is that after marriage a husband or wife accepted Christ. Because of the desire to serve Christ, the believing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13242,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-right-to-marry-a-non-christian-if-she-is-willing-to-convert\/","url_meta":{"origin":19913,"position":2},"title":"Is it right to marry a non-Christian if she is willing to convert?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 8, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is it right to marry a non-Christian girl if she is willing to convert? And can we marry a girl who is divorced? Answer: It is not wrong for a Christian to be married to a non-Christian. \"For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41822,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-shouldnt-only-in-the-lord-mean-only-marry-a-christian\/","url_meta":{"origin":19913,"position":3},"title":"Why shouldn’t “only in the Lord” mean only marry a Christian?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 11, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I want to thank you for the lesson Because of the Present Distress. My concern is that of the widow's decision in I Corinthians 7:39-40. If Paul was not categorical about the term \"only in the Lord\" as to marrying only a Christian, contrasting your earlier lesson on marriage\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41913,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-i-marry-the-non-christian-im-living-with\/","url_meta":{"origin":19913,"position":4},"title":"Should I marry the non-Christian I’m living with?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 18, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I am having a few issues. I fell in love with a non-Christian and planned to marry her. I fully believed that God would save her and she would become Christian. I love her but after my pastor kept pushing me not to marry her because she was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19934,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/only-in-the-lord\/","url_meta":{"origin":19913,"position":5},"title":"Only in the Lord","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 13, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bob Buchanon Would you please explain the phrase \u201cin the Lord\u201d found in I Corinthians 7:39? Does this mean that if the widow chooses to remarry, she would only be allowed to marry one who is a Christian or \u201cin the Lord\u201d? The phrase \u201cin the Lord\u201d is prepositional\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19913\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}