Hey Kyle,

Here is my own personal practical opinion.

I am a father of three girls. I remain a witness to them and I instruct them and they are all baptized and attend church.

I love them very much and if any of them should break away from the church, I would never disown them. I wouldn't even be legalistic with them, especially when they are out from under my parental authority. I would continue to love them and try to guide them, but at the end of the day, it's their decision and if I just continue to admonish them over and over, then the only thing that would result from that is that they would eventually wan't nothing to do with me.

Now the argument here is, well; sometime it takes tough love. But again, when they are old enough and or when they get married, then they are out from under my authority, so I am no longer in a position to administer judgement.

I believe in this situation; that the loving thing to do, would to just be a good witness to them. Pull them aside, tell them how your feel as a disciple of Christ; open up the Scriptures to them and encourage them to join a good Church.

If they don't then, you've done what you could, if they do, then it's now up to the Pastor and the Leaders to help that person.

Either way; in my personal opinion, the loving thing to do is to stay involved in their lives as a good witness. Yes; attend their wedding and smile and hug the bride and love them.

It is very unfortunate if a believer does mary an unbeliever. First of all, if this happens, then the believer in my opinion isn't very strong in their faith, or else they would have been seeking a believer to be married to.

It's unfortunate because if the believer does become stronger in their faith, then they are going to face a lot of challenges.

I can testify to this because I am in that situation. I'm not saying that my wife is an unbeliever, but her faith isn't like my faith.

Where I really desire to sell most of what I have and become a missionary, she desires to have a big house, a nice car, nice cloths, go to a luke warm church, etc.... etc....

So I'm not able to follow the Lord the way that I would like too. There is so much to be said here though; I truly believe that God wants me exactly where I'm at and I'm not complaining, I'm just using my own personal example of how it can be tough to be married to an unbeliever.

Most of my family are Catholics. I personally believe that none of them are true believers. Now I can either separate myself from them which would cause much tension with my wife. Or I can continue to be more of a silent witness to them and pray for them. There are times when I have to put my foot down, but I still continue to work hard at remain in good relations with them, mostly because it pleases my wife. In this situation, it wouldn't do any good for me to separate myself from them, because my wife wouldn't follow and it would just cause me to eventually getting a divorce. So I just leave it up to God to eventually work in their hearts.

Anyway, I hope this helps.

Dave


Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. - Galatians 2:16