“Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you and destroy thee suddenly.” Deuteronomy 7:3-4
Since love binds us to the one(s) we love, it is all important that we only allow ourselves to be bound to those who are right with God. Otherwise, the bond of our physical and emotional love will be a force to pull us away from what is right with God. We will consciously and unconsciously give our loyalty to the one(s) we love, because that is what love is and what love does.
Christ addressed this in Luke 14:26 “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” This “hatred” refers to the necessary pulling back and away from all that will command a loyalty to something other than God and His Word. The first love that is to command the loyalty of our life, is to be our love for God above all else.
It was the bondage of love that compelled Adam to eat the forbidden fruit handed to him by his beloved wife, Eve, even though he knew it was contrary to God’s Word. This love gave him courage to ignore even the penalty of death for doing so.
It was the strength of the bond of love that resulted in Solomon’s heart being turned away from God, to be joined with the false worship of idolatry, in spite of his superior God given wisdom, 1 Kings 11:1-4.
It was due to the loyalty of Sapphira’s love for her husband, Ananias, that she became supportive of his grave spiritual error, see Acts 5:1-9.
Since God, being the author of love, knows the strength of the bond of love, He admonishes His children to make sure they do not yoke themselves together with those who are not right with God: “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? (2 Corinthians 6:14) An unbeliever is one who does not agree with God’s Word. “By their fruits ye shall know them.”
The greater the love, the greater the bondage–BE NOT DECEIVED!
SHARING
