What does the Bible say about marriage in which the husband and the wife have completely different characteristics?

Question:

What does the Bible say about married couples whose members have completely different characteristics, for example: poor and rich, beautiful and less beautiful, quick and gentle, smart and simple, a girl from the city and a country boy? What is the role of drastic background differences of the characters that are joined together? From your experience, I suppose you’ve met many people with all kind of cases and circumstances. What have you noticed from life experiences in this field?

The attitude toward God is crucial

In the Bible, God commanded the men of Israel not to marry women of other nations and vice versa, not to give the women of Israel to men of other nations.

Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods, and the LORD’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you. (Deuteronomy 7:3-4)

I draw the attention of the reader that the reason why these marriages were forbidden was not the belonging to other nations, but idolatry in which they were involved.

Likewise, God does not allow Christians to marry someone of other religions or who are believers only by name.

Living faith in God – happy marriage guarantee

All people are different and the differences often create harmony. It seems that differences just make us fall in love with the person that we marry. The Bible tells us about marriages in which husband and wife were very different and both were very happy together.

Biblical examples of happy couples

• Boaz and Ruth: Boaz was a wealthy man in Israel and he took Ruth to marry her, who was poor, very poor at that time, was a widow, a Moabitess, of a foreign nation, but who came to seek refuge to God of Israel.
• Salmon and Rahab: Salmon was a man from Israel that seems to have taken part in the conquest of Jericho and then he took as his wife the former prostitute Rahab who believed wholeheartedly in God and then chose to continue living in purity, according to the Holy Word.

I met many couples who are very different, but happy just because they both sincerely believe in our Lord Jesus Christ and obey God’s Word.

It is also important to think about the communication that you want to have in marriage when you ask the girl in marriage or when you accept to marry a boy.

What does the reader think about these differences?What examples has s/he seen? How are you different from your husband or your wife and what effect do these differences have on your relationship?

Translated by Felicia Rotaru