Is it wrong for a Christian husband and wife to attend separate churches?

Serving the Lord with your spouse must mean having the same exercise as to the place to enjoy the privileges of Christian fellowship, and being committed to the gathering together of the Lord's people as seen in the Scriptures. Then together you can serve the Lord and bring up children with the same conviction and not be divided, so that one goes to one ‘type of church’ and the other to another with the conflicting loyalties this brings when children come along.

A home is not to be confused with a house. An architect plans the house, but love and order construct the home. It is important that in the new Christian home an agreed policy between husband and wife should predominate; “and they two shall be one flesh.” Particularly in things God-ward concerted action should prevail. The former spiritual habits and activities hitherto practised by each need not cease, only they may now be prayerfully pursued with the enhanced energy that concord and consultation supply to Christian service. The two happy persons will unite as they never could before in “labour for and with the Lord.” And the former effect for good and blessing will not diminish, but will rather be increased by the intimate wedded union of two hearts devoted to the Lord.

They come together to "do this" not as husband and wife (see Gal 3:28), nor as "one flesh" (Eph. 5:31), but as joint-members of the body of Christ. They would in principle occupy the ground of the assembly of God in that place.

A. — 1. Though they approach nearly, there is a shade of difference, the first rather expressing privilege, the latter responsibility. 2. This is certainly so in the case proposed. Two persons might be "in Christ," truly attached in affection, but the one entering into the full relationship of the Christian, the other hardly rising in faith or practice above a simple believer, content with remission of sins and general care as to moral walk, and in a false position ecclesiastically. Would it be "in the Lord" for such to marry? Can two walk together before Him who are not agreed in a duty so important for His glory?

I turn now to the second Scripture; "Can two walk together?" This word "together" is common to these three Scriptures. "Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" We are assured that our young brother in his individual pathway up till now in the sovereign mercy of God, in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the power of the blessed Spirit of God, has devoted himself to the interests of our Lord Jesus. He has his work to do; he will find that his work is a necessity in order to maintain his home. He will have to put his hand to mundane things; as a man here and as a husband he will have to perform his responsibilities, but behind it all is the fact that in his heart what he is set for in the infinitude of the mercy of God is the precious interests of Christ. What shall we say of our young sister? Has she not proved by her pathway hitherto, coming in amongst the saints of God, brought up (as our young brother has been) in a home where the Word of God is read, where prayer is wont to be made, and the precious interests of Christ are carried in hearts that cherish Him, that these same blessed features have been coming out in their measure in her? She has known what it is to assemble with the saints of God to remember the Lord in His death, to be found in the place where the Scriptures are read, where the dependent attitude of prayer is seen, and where the precious gospel sounds out to men from the heart of God. She has devoted herself, as likewise our young brother, to these precious things. And so we are assured that they will walk together because they are agreed. We are assured, and this is our prayer for them and the prayers of others in this room, that these precious interests which have taken hold of the affections of our brother in his individual pathway, and which have taken hold of our sister in her individual pathway, may now be found in their pathway as walking together, the all-absorbing interest in their new life.

Our fellowship is thus not merely “vertical”, i.e. heavenwards with our Lord, but also “horizontal”, i.e. with one another. We have been brought into complete fellowship. It is a great joy, and at the same time a great privilege to testify to this fellowship at the Lord’s Table, but it brings responsibility with it. If we wish to express this unity, we can do so only when we walk together in unity on one pathway in practice, and acknowledge this unity practically. If we seek to express this fellowship in the Breaking of Bread, we cannot simply and unhesitatingly break bread with all believers. We cannot “commute” between various Christian groups and companies that are not in full fellowship with each other and do not gather on the ground of the unity that the Bible teaches., i.e. those who do not understand their gathering together to be an expression of the unity of the entire Church on earth.

It must be entirely a question of individual faith. You must walk before God in happy loving fellowship. You should both wait upon God together and seek to be of one mind in the Lord. This is your happy privilege. It is of the utmost importance for man and wife to cultivate the daily habit of waiting together on the Lord. It has a marvelous effect upon the whole range of domestic life. Bring everything before God, pour out your hearts together. Have no secrets, no reserve. Then will your hearts be knit together in holy love, and the current of your personal, conjugal and domestic life will flow peacefully and happily on, to the praise of Him who has made you one and called you to walk together as heirs of the grace of life.

The daily offering of praise and thanksgiving to God, no longer strictly personal to each, has fresh fervour to which each contributes from a grateful heart. The joint prayers of husband and wife are the more powerful in their intercession, seeing they are offered from the hearts of those whom God has joined together. These devotional exercises carry with them their own peculiar and almost inexpressible joys, which are all the sweeter to the taste because they are shared together in the new home.

Attention to this injunction is the more needful for the reason given, "that your prayers be not hindered." It is pre-supposed that husband and wife will habitually unite in prayer; and hence the warning is, that any failure in the husband to give honour unto his wife will tend to disturb harmony of feeling, and thus to hinder prayer. It were well if all Christian husbands and wives would often ponder these words. For in the activities of this present time there is great danger of neglecting this united prayer; and the slightest disturbance of concord will ever tempt them to neglect it the more. Satan knows this, and hence he ever seeks to cloud over the peace of these relationships; for he does not forget that it is impossible for husband and wife to go together to the throne of grace when there is the smallest discord in their hearts. The husband must watch against this snare, remembering the importance of their prayers not being hindered. For how many things are there constantly occurring in every family which need to be spread out before God! And how blessed it is when husband and wife can go together, with one heart, concerning every difficulty and perplexity, to the throne of grace!

"T. A. S." The Christian wife to whom you refer would need peculiar grace and wisdom to enable her to deal rightly with her unbelieving husband. A tender, gracious carriage on her part might be greatly owned of God to win the heart of her husband. As to whether she ought to leave him and go to the Lord's Table, thus running the risk of his going to the public house, we do not deem ourselves warranted in laying down any rule. A Christian wife, under such painful circumstances, must be much in the divine presence in order to know how to act. "I will guide thee with mine eye" — not by rules and regulations