What is the Difference Between a Christian Marriage and a non-Christian Marriage?

By Rev. Ernest O'Neill

Now loved ones, that’s the difference between a Christian marriage and a non-Christian marriage.  And it’s stated there in 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8.  “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from unchastity; that each one of you know how to take a wife for himself in holiness and honor.”  That’s because God wants you.  “Not in the passion of lust like heathen who do not know God; that no man transgress, and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we solemnly forewarned you.  For God has not called us for uncleanness, but in holiness.  Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.”  And the point of the whole statement is that each one of you know how to take a wife for himself in holiness and honor, not on the passion of lust like heathen.

So for the great mass of us who married because she looked good, or married because we thought she would give us emotionally, or physically the satisfaction that we felt we deserved, or for those sisters here who married for that reason that you thought he would give you the emotional satisfaction, or the physical satisfaction that you wanted out of marriage, do you see that, that’s what the heathen do?  That there is little difference between the heathen and the animal kingdom, that they all marry because of the sexual satisfaction that they will get from each other.  And loved ones, it can’t be the basis of marriage.