InterVarsity Press

Conversations: Two Questions about Love and Marriage

Brandon:

If love is sacred and a gift from God, why is it so hard to find? Why experience so much lust over and over again? What if we give up on love? Are we still living our lives in such a way that God would approve?

Ruth:

I wish there was an easy answer to your question. Well, there is. Love is creational, that being part of God's good creation in the Garden. Lust is a result of the Fall. Lust is what makes the news and we see lust, as a result of the Fall, all over the pages of the Old Testament. Giving up on love would be giving up on God. The highest form of love is what we read in 1 Corinthians 13, the "love chapter" of the Bible. There is much more that I could say, but this is the short answer—the "easy answer."

Anonymous:

Do you believe being married four times is a sin?

Ruth:

The "sin" of being married four times would relate to the circumstances, so I couldn't answer the question without knowing more. The most important thing to remember is that God forgives sin. The woman at the well apparently had multiple marriages and she is the first and most effective evangelist in the Gospel accounts. I hope this helps.