DEAR READERS,

I recently received a question that I am choosing not to publish but feel compelled to address.

The question was two-fold and deals with living with an abusive person and how God feels about it.

While I have my own experiences with toxic relationships, I am not qualified to offer advice on that subject. I would like to, however, provide some resources available to individuals in abusive relationships. The National Domestic Violence Hotline is available 24/7 and offers assistance by telephone, text, or chat. The resource page for domesticshelter.org provides links to forums and chats. There are numerous articles online that discuss abusive relationships from a Biblical viewpoint. I found a very good article at the website marriagemissions.com.

Finally, to the person that submitted the question, thank you for reaching out to me. I will pray for you and your situation and leave you with John 3:16-21 (NIV), which reads:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.”