October 7 Ezra 9-10 Keeping the Holy Race Holy

Ezra came back to find a number of men who were unfaithful to God by marrying pagan women from their surrounding area. God specifically forbade it because God knew that the women would lead their families astray - toward idol worship. This fear has been borne out in Biblical history. Now some of the men returning from exile had begun to defile Israel yet again. Ezra and the elders take drastic, but necessary action.

Does this have any bearing on today's life? It certainly does. Christians should only marry other Christians. Christians have a hard enough time staying faithful - they shouldn't complicate things further by getting yoked with unfaithful people.

Now, you might point to some Christian you know that married an unbeliever and the unbeliever got saved after marriage. Praise God. It happens. But most of the time, the Christian ends up falling away or living a frustrated life with someone with different values. Since we all tend toward spiritual sloth, the children of mixed marriages usually end up as unbelievers.

Christians should marry Christians. One of the purposes of marriage stated by God in Malachi 2 - "He was seeking godly offspring." In the vast majority of cases, it takes two godly parents to make godly children.

Some Christians date unbelievers and claim they won't marry him/her. The problem is two fold:

1. While they are dating an unbeliever, they are blocking God from bringing a godly believer in their life.
2. They are risking falling in love with this person and letting their feelings getting the better of their judgment and eventually marrying the unbeliever. 

Psalm 1 implores us to stay away from sin - to not even go near it. Trust God and wait for the godly believer. Marriage is for a lifetime - that's a long time.