Hello Mr. Hamilton,<\/p>\n
I send cards for different reasons to church family members as well as loved ones all year long. About 90% of my card collection contain Scriptures and faith-based messages. But the one kind that tugs at my heart is \u201cHappy Anniversary,\u201d for couples I care about outside the church, including family who I know have a non-scriptural marriage.<\/p>\n
This scenario has somehow hit me hard lately. Trying not to judge and wishing them happiness was always my intention, but I feel differently now. How can I truly wish these things if in my heart I know that their marriage isn\u2019t condoned in God\u2019s eyes?<\/p>\n
I know this is a trivial question compared to an enormous mountain of emails you receive. I really should ask my dear Shepherds I suppose, (I\u2019m single) but I just wanted your thoughts as well.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been visiting your site for about ten years and I am amazed by your commitment, knowledge, and the truthful information you provide in\u00a0responses. I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve been a beacon of blessings to more people than you can imagine.<\/p>\n
Thank you for your time.<\/p>\n\t
After listing out the numerous sins in the Gentile society, Paul stated, “and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them<\/em>” (Romans 1:32). The simple problem is that showing approval for sinful actions is condoning sin. Thus, I don’t send a card congratulating a thief on his recent successful heist, I don’t attend the weddings of homosexual couples, nor can I sit and listen to a person bad mouth his friend.<\/p>\n It is sad when people you know, who already are not listening to God add additional sins to their lives. I might have to deal with people in my day-to-day life whom I know are not living righteously, but I don’t have to indicate that what they have done is acceptable to me.<\/p>\n The fact is that when someone leaves his spouse to marry another person the couple is living in adultery (Luke 16:18; Romans 7:2-3). The unscriptural marriage is the\u00a0cause<\/em> of the sin, but the sin is adultery. To send a “Happy Anniversary” card to a couple in an adulterous relation is to indicate that you see nothing wrong with what they have done.<\/p>\n Society is decaying and sin is spreading because people are too timid to take stands against sin. Even when we do stand against sin, sin will still be there, but at least we won’t be encouraging its spread.<\/p>\n\t Jeffrey,<\/p>\n Thank you for responding so quickly. I see that my heart and mind really did land onto the same page as that little \u201ctap\u201d on my shoulder.<\/p>\n May you and your family have a wonderful and safe week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Hello Mr. Hamilton, I send cards for different reasons to church family members as well as loved ones all year long. About 90% of my card collection contain Scriptures and faith-based messages. But the one kind that tugs at my heart is \u201cHappy Anniversary,\u201d for couples I care about outside the church, including family…<\/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,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[66,167,254],"class_list":["post-23804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-adultery","tag-divorce","tag-withdrawal"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":67407,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/must-married-couples-have-children\/","url_meta":{"origin":23804,"position":0},"title":"Must married couples have children?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 11, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello Mr. Hamilton! I hope this finds you well! I have a question and wanted to hear your thoughts on it. I don't know of any verse that says Christians, if married, should have children. However, in I Timothy 5:14, Paul says he wants widows to bear children. Does\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":22179,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/your-web-site-helped-my-wife-understand-that-sex-is-clean-for-married-couples\/","url_meta":{"origin":23804,"position":1},"title":"Your web site helped my wife understand that sex is clean for married couples","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 16, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I would like you to know that your web site helped my wife very much today in understanding sex is clean for married couples and that sex is good because of Him! Thank you so much. Please pray for us. My wife is a very private person who is\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":7556,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-i-tell-you-about-a-way-to-get-married-without-government-involvement\/","url_meta":{"origin":23804,"position":2},"title":"Can I tell you about a way to get married without government involvement?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 19, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I noticed a guy wrote\u00a0a piece about marriage claiming he didn't need a piece of paper. He is right by all means; all you need is two witnesses and you can be married by American law. But if you do get a marriage license, you put your kids under\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":47664,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-a-sin-for-married-couples-to-split-the-bills\/","url_meta":{"origin":23804,"position":3},"title":"Is It a Sin for Married Couples to Split the Bills?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 27, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello sir, I know you are busy laboring for the Lord so I don't want to take up too much of your time. I just want to thank you for your years of labor for the Lord and your website which is such a blessing to me as I\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":14343,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-more-should-i-do-to-be-worthy-of-forgiveness-i-committed-fornication-just-before-my-marriage\/","url_meta":{"origin":23804,"position":4},"title":"What more should I do to be worthy of forgiveness? I committed fornication just before my marriage","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 16, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I was baptized in a local church of Christ a few weeks before I and my wife got married. But before our wedding day, we had sex (by the way she's not yet a believer of Christ). I knew in my heart before we even had sex that\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":68803,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-she-married\/","url_meta":{"origin":23804,"position":5},"title":"Was she married?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 14, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Greetings in Jesus' name, I was searching for an answer to a particular question that affected me, and I came across a similar question and answer on your website. I'm not yet married. I fell in love with a girl in my locality. I was born and raised there\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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23804","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=23804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23804\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Response:<\/h2>\n