If this grief is true grief and if this repentance is true repentance, the test will be your willingness to change your behaviour—to stop what you are practicing; to break off this wrong relationship that you have established. Now I need to [add] at this point that I think you have something here of what M. Kline would call intrusion-ethic. In 1 Corinthians 7:1–40, the apostle Paul says in our circumstances, if you are married to an unbeliever—and he does not enquire as to how it came to be that you are married to an unbeliever—and the unbeliever wants to continue to be married to you, then you continue to be married to that unbeliever. So this is a special circumstance. Why is it special? Because the ongoing existence of the people of God is at risk, and thus special steps are necessary. Immediate action is necessary. Extraordinary action is needed. And so the marriages of those who have taken these wives, are to be annulled, and they are to be separated from those wives and from the children who were the products of those marriages. They are to be sent back to paganism.

It is a very serious—that is not even the word for it—it is an extreme step. It is a painful step. There would have been bonds of affection that had been established between these men of Israel and their wives and children. This is unusual. This is unprecedented. This is not the norm. This is not what is required through the ages. But in this case, it is, because of that which is at risk. And...this gives us a picture of true repentance. When there is true repentance, you repudiate the sin. That means you stop—you leave that lifestyle, you leave that practice.¹

Terry L. Johnson