Single? Think of the top five criteria that you look for in someone you’d want to date. Where does the person’s Christian faith rank in your top five? Is it even in your top five?

I know, I know. You will say to me that marriage evangelism has been happening for centuries, that dating and marrying an unbeliever is no big deal because the believer can bring the other person to faith. Two of the women in Jesus Christ’s own ancestry, Rahab and Ruth, were non-Israelites brought up to worship false gods. Both were led to the true God by their husbands. Indeed that happens.

But so does the reverse. Sometimes the unbelieving spouse drags the believer down. Even the wisest man in the world lost his spiritual bearings: “As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been” (1 Kings 11:4). How do you know which is going to happen? You don’t.

If your boyfriend or girlfriend won’t go to church with you while you are dating, he or she probably won’t when you’re married either. How long can you keep your faith life going if your spouse thinks praying, Bible reading, and churchgoing are stupid wastes of time? Abraham went to great lengths to find a believing wife for Isaac.