{"id":57694,"date":"2023-01-06T14:54:05","date_gmt":"2023-01-06T20:54:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=57694"},"modified":"2023-01-06T14:54:05","modified_gmt":"2023-01-06T20:54:05","slug":"should-i-marry-my-fiance-who-is-not-a-practicing-christian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-i-marry-my-fiance-who-is-not-a-practicing-christian\/","title":{"rendered":"Should I marry my fiance, who is not a practicing Christian?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>Should I marry my fianc\u00e9?<\/p>\n<p>My fianc\u00e9 and I have been dating for 7 years. I was 17 when I met him and living a worldly life (partying, drinking, smoking, cursing)<\/p>\n<p>I entered my relationship with my current fianc\u00e9 because he answered this question: &#8220;Are you Christian?&#8221; and his answer was &#8220;yes.&#8221; He grew up going to church and studying the Bible. I thought this was enough and the best answer at that time.<\/p>\n<p>Recently, I started going to church after three years of not attending. I reconciled with God and accepted Christ into my life. I then told my boyfriend that I couldn&#8217;t continue in this relationship if we continued to have sex outside of marriage. I told him that I am taking my relationship with Christ very seriously. I started living like I was a Christian.<\/p>\n<p>Two months after that conversation, he proposed and I said yes. Now I am afraid of marrying him because I am afraid of not being aligned and making a mistake. He&#8217;s a good guy, but he doesn&#8217;t worship God, go to church, or practice a Christian life. He says that you don&#8217;t have to go to church to have a relationship with God, but states he is willing to go with me on Sundays. Will God bless my marriage if I marry him?<\/p>\n<p>My overall question is: Should I marry my fianc\u00e9 and if I should not, should I state the reason why?<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<p>Your last question left me puzzled. Why would a Christian avoid stating that following Christ fully is important and that she wants a man who is committed to Christ and not playing the part?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;<em>Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven. Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man&#8217;s enemies will be the members of his own household. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me<\/em>&#8221; (Matthew 10:32-38).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>You&#8217;ve grown a lot over the last few years and your fiance has not. Therefore, the question you have to ask yourself is: How important to you is having a dedicated Christian as your husband? There are Christians who are married to non-Christians. Some remain faithful but have a difficult life. Others fall back into the world because of the stresses that result. Your fiance is not opposed to the Christian life, but he doesn&#8217;t live it. If you are willing to work at being a Christian without your husband&#8217;s support, you might make it work. There is always the possibility that you&#8217;ll lead your husband to Christ. &#8220;<em>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<\/em>&#8221; (I Peter 3:1-2). But keep in mind that you will be choosing a harder life.<\/p>\n<p>You also have to realize that your husband won&#8217;t be much help in raising religiously minded children. It is likely that your children may not grow up to be strong Christians as they imitate your husband&#8217;s lax attitude.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, I can&#8217;t make the decision for you. That is one you have to make on your own. I can only point out the difficulties that I know exist. God never said He would hold it against a Christian for marrying someone who is disobedient to Christ. Any trouble in the future will not come from Him but from the people you have in your life.<\/p>\n<p>It sounds to me that you need to have a heart-to-heart talk about your concerns &#8212; both the present ones and the ones you foresee impacting your marriage in the future.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: Should I marry my fianc\u00e9? My fianc\u00e9 and I have been dating for 7 years. I was 17 when I met him and living a worldly life (partying, drinking, smoking, cursing) I entered my relationship with my current fianc\u00e9 because he answered this question: &#8220;Are you Christian?&#8221; and his answer was &#8220;yes.&#8221; He grew&hellip;<\/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_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[149,662,64],"class_list":["post-57694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-dating","tag-engagement","tag-marriage"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":24552,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-my-fiance-a-real-christian\/","url_meta":{"origin":57694,"position":0},"title":"Is my fiance a real Christian?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 17, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I've been dating for a year, and now I'm engaged, but it still will take two years for us to marry. My fiance and I have strong sexual temptations, it seems like I have a lot more control than him. Sometimes it scares me because he seems to want\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34076,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-i-have-to-break-off-my-engagement-because-we-committed-fornication\/","url_meta":{"origin":57694,"position":1},"title":"Do I have to break off my engagement because we committed fornication?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 18, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I need advice, please. I had been living as a born-again Christian for over a year before I fell into sin and committed fornication. I met the guy a year after my baptism and we were engaged a few months later; we are both in our thirties. He\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40189,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-i-stay-with-my-fiance-or-go-with-the-guy-i-recently-met\/","url_meta":{"origin":57694,"position":2},"title":"Should I stay with my fiance or go with the guy I recently met?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 12, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Please bear with me as this is long. While searching for my answer I stumbled across one of your previous questions that were somewhat similar, so I decided to write you. I met my now fiance over five years ago when I was at a low point in my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37219,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-i-end-our-engagement-even-though-weve-sinned\/","url_meta":{"origin":57694,"position":3},"title":"Should I end our engagement even though we&#8217;ve sinned?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I am a 25 years old woman. I met my fiance about five years ago as a friend. Eventually, the friendship turned out to be a much-committed relationship. He proposed to me for marriage. We have been engaged for several years. We have been postponing marriage due to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":68268,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-my-boyfriend-using-me-because-he-doesnt-want-to-get-married\/","url_meta":{"origin":57694,"position":4},"title":"Is my boyfriend using me because he doesn&#8217;t want to get married?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 6, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good Evening! My boyfriend and I have been in a relationship for four years now. I have visited this other church, and they told me I should leave my fianc\u00e9 because he doesn't want to marry and is just using me. I love him so much, and he has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32655,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-my-fiance-in-sin-by-marrying-someone-else\/","url_meta":{"origin":57694,"position":5},"title":"Is my fiance in sin by marrying someone else?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 23, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My fianc\u00e9 left me for another woman and got married to her. Is it right for me to have someone and marry? Is he committing sin with the wife he married? Answer: An engagement is an intention to marry, but it is not a marriage. A marriage is formed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","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\/57694","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=57694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57694\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}