Marriage - 2 Corinthians 6:11-14

6:11-13 - If Paul and the missionaries aren’t being enriched physically by their efforts, then it speaks volumes to the power and value of their message of the gospel. Paul points out that they love the Corinthians “our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged.” This love is not reciprocated all the time however, “ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels.” The IM reminds us that the use of the word “bowels” often references emotions such as “pity, love, and kindness, because when we feel love or compassion we often experience strong internal feelings.” He’s telling them that he and his companions love them, “despite the fact that some of the Saints were apparently withholding their love from him.”

 

It’s easy to love people who love you, but it is very difficult to love people who don’t love you or who are actively working against you. This strengthens his argument that his motivation for preaching the gospel isn’t about money of fame, but about God’s love. You have to be very committed to your cause to continue working on it when the money is love and the hatred of other people is strong. That’s usually when you can look at what someone is advocating for and think, “maybe there’s something to this.”

 

6:14 - This is the part where I have to remember that Paul is addressing the Corinthians in specific problems they are having, not just general principles, even though this would apply generally. Paul teaches, “be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communication hath light with darkness?” I don’t think that Paul is advocating seclusion from the unbelieving world, especially since he just talked about “giving no offence in anything, that the ministry be not blamed.” Because he mentioned the ministry, it seems to me that Paul is counseling them not to be offensive to anyone, even unbelievers. And it’s difficult to isolate yourself and only interact with those of your faith, especially when you live in a place where you are the minority. And that’s not what Jesus wants us to do anyway, he wants us to be good neighbors, good friends, happy helpers. We can’t love all of God’s children if we refuse to engage with them because they don’t have the same beliefs as them.

 

Concerning Paul’s phrasing specifically, the IM notes, “the law of Moses forbade the yoking of an ox and as ass together so that the weaker animal would not hold the stronger one back and the stronger animal would not inflict pain or discomfort on the weaker one.” Paul is specifically counseling against marrying a non-member, noting that you won’t be able to equally pull on the load. This is an especially sensitive topic for me because I married a non-member. I was inactive at the time and I didn’t think anything of it, but when I decided to go back to church, then I wanted my husband to go with me. He didn’t want to go to 3 hours of boring church, he wanted to stay home and do what he had been doing every Sunday morning since I met him. He wasn’t a member when I married him so I could not expect him to join the church afterward. Having lived to the age I am with all the experiences that I’ve had, the gospel is so important to me and having deep meaningful discussions about it is so important to me that if I ever get married again, it will have to be to a man who loves the gospel just as much as I do. 

 

I’m done trying to convince a significant other that loving the gospel and keeping the commandments is important, if he can’t bring that to the table already, then I don’t have any time for him. I’m not asking any man to do anything that I’m not already doing myself, working, paying my own bills, raising my own kids, keep my covenants. I’m just looking for a temple worthy, single man with a job, I don’t think that my standards are that high. Anyway, the sentiment implied in Paul’s statement has always bothered me though, that non-members are not worth relationships. The IM addresses this with a quote from President Spencer W. Kimball saying, “no implication is here made that all members of the Church are worthy and that all nonmembers are unworthy, but eternal marriage cannot be had outside of the temple, and nonmembers are not permitted to go into the temple… Perhaps Paul wanted them to see that religious differences are fundamental differences.”

 

I like this a lot because it notes that just because someone’s a member doesn’t mean that they are a good person, because I’ve known many who are terrible, and I’ve known many nonmembers who are amazing, in fact I would say that the vast majority of them are. I think one of the reasons why marriage might be viewed in a different light is because it is the only one of our ordinances that is widely socially accepted and legally recognized by the government. Because marriage is such a big deal outside of the church as well, then it’s easy to think that the world’s views on marriage are just as important as the gospel perspective. The article written about this chapter from gospeldoctrine.com quotes Mark E. Petersen as advocating for marriage not only within our own faith, but within the holy temple as well, saying, “Just as God has his mode of baptism, so he has his mode of marriage. Should a Latter-day Saint ever reject God’s mode of baptism? Then why should a Latter-day Saint ever reject God’s mode of marriage? Marriage is intended by the Lord to last forever, eternally, as President Richards says, ‘to be projected out into the eternities.’ That takes temple marriage.”

 

I guess I’ve just never viewed marriage as a covenant with God, it’s always just been focused on my husband, maybe that’s the problem here, I need to shift my perspective from a commitment to a certain man to a commitment to God AND a certain man. I guess what’s hard is that I’m so jaded now that I don’t think that there are any men out there who are actually willing to make a forever promise to Got that he’ll take care of me. And I know that that is a self-fulfilling prophecy because if I don’t believe they are out there, then I’ll never see one, so I should probably work on that too.