Another big week ahead of us on the podcast. Our inbox is rather full of questions from listeners who are asking about remarriage after the death of a spouse. Here are two of those emails. "Pastor John, my name is Preeti, P-R-E-E-T-Y, Preeti from Indonesia. In July of last year, I lost my loving husband.

He went in for surgery that was not supposed to be life-threatening, but he never woke up from the anesthesia. I was and remain in shock. We have been married for 8 years, blessed with two beautiful daughters. My husband has been actively serving the Lord since the age of 18, while most of his friends are Hindu.

His life was all about the gospel. We started a church and a few gatherings. He loved people dearly, compassionate and generous. My question to you is this, are there verses in the Bible that encourage widows to remarry? That sounds disturbing to me right now. My question is, what's left for me to hold on to in my relationship between my husband and me?

I long to be always called his wife, but is that wrong? Each day I wait to be reunited with my husband again. Thank you, Pastor John." And then the second email comes in from Patricia, who asks more directly, "Pastor John, does the Bible allow remarriage after the death of a spouse?" What would you say to these ladies, Pastor John?

Well, this is really fresh, it sounds like, and very present in the heart of Preeti. I don't know Patricia's situation, but let me start with principles and then get to the point of Preeti's heart and the decision she's facing. Marrying after the death of a spouse is pretty clearly addressed by Paul at least twice, and by Jesus as well.

In Romans 7, verses 2 and 3, Paul says this, "A married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage." So there's the first statement. "Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive, but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, and if she marries another man, she's not an adulteress." So twice, verse 2, "If her husband dies, she's released." Verse 3, "If her husband dies, she's free." Then Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7.39, "A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives, but if her husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes only in the Lord." So Paul simply adds to what he taught in Romans that any marriage of a believer should be in the Lord, that is, to another believer.

Now Jesus addressed the issue because the Sadducees, who didn't believe in the resurrection, tried to make remarriage look foolish. It looked like it produced polygamy in heaven. That was their shtick on why heaven can't really exist, because we'd be polygamous there because of all the people that have married again after the death of a spouse.

So they pointed to the Old Testament provision that a brother is to marry the widow of his brother, raise up offspring, and they say that happened, and it happened seven times, so now she's had seven husbands. So with a sneer, whose wife is she going to be in the resurrection?

So what did Jesus say? Did he say, "Oh, well, I guess she shouldn't remarry because we certainly can't have polygamy in the heaven." No, that's not what he said. He said, "The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are counted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry or are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore because they are equal to angels and are sons of God being sons of the resurrection." That's Luke 20, 33-36.

In other words, a widow does not need to worry about polygamy in heaven when she remarries because relationships are going to be so different in the resurrection, no one will think of marriage in a way that makes polygamy a problem. It's just not going to be there. There won't be marriage and giving in marriage like there are here and now.

So at the principal level, widows and widowers are free to marry in the Lord. Now just a word about Preeti's situation. She says, "My question is, are there verses in the Bible that encourage widows to remarry?" And the answer is, yes, there are. Like 1 Timothy 5, 11-15, where Paul wants younger widows to remarry instead of being on the special widow care ministry that existed evidently so that they wouldn't be a burden on the church and so that they wouldn't be a victim of Satan's temptation.

But I would caution to say that what Paul means there is command to marry because of 1 Corinthians 7-39 where it says they are free to remarry whom they please only in the Lord. It's not as though Paul is, I think, providing an absolute here that every widow must remarry any more than every person must marry in the first place.

Now she adds, "Okay, that encouragement or positive view of remarriage sounds disturbing to me right now. My question," she says, "is what's left for me to hold on to in my relationship with my husband and me? I long to always be called his wife. But is that wrong?" Now my response, Preeti, is even if you remarry someday, which you feel right now is remote, if you do remarry someday, you may respectfully be known as the former wife of your previous husband.

He had no other. You were his. That fact never changes. And that would only be a problem to be known that way if your emotional bond with your deceased husband was stronger than your emotional bond with your second husband. But I would encourage you not to make any commitment not to remarry, and I would encourage you not to feel any pressure to rush into any remarriage or to exclude the possibility of remarriage.

Time heals the deepest wounds, especially for believers like you who have had such sweet and good experiences that have been lost. Time heals the deepest wounds. Let time pass, and let God show you over time what the future holds. Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you for the questions as well.

As you can hear, we're working through some audio issues on Pastor John's side of things, and we hope to get those resolved soon. So thank you for your patience. You can, of course, subscribe to our audio feeds and search our episode archive and even reach us by email with a difficult question that you may be facing in your life.

You can do all of that through our online home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn. Well how much sleep is laziness and how little sleep is arrogance? And when should we deprive ourselves of sleep and how do we find the balance in our sleep patterns? We all face this question every day really and it's a question on the table and we return on Wednesday.

And for those listeners in the United States, have a wonderful Independence Day celebration. I'm your host Tony Reinke. We'll see you back here on Wednesday. 1 Desiring God.org Page 2 of 9