‘As for you, Titus, promote the kind of living that reflects wholesome teaching. Teach the older men to exercise self-control, to be worthy of respect, and to live wisely. They must have sound faith and be filled with love and patience. Similarly, teach the older women to live in a way that honors God. They must not slander others or be heavy drinkers. Instead, they should teach others what is good. These older women must train the younger women to love their husbands and their children, to live wisely and be pure, to work in their homes, to do good, and to be submissive to their husbands. Then they will not bring shame on the word of God. In the same way, encourage the young men to live wisely. ‘ Titus 2:1-6(NLT)
‘For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people. And we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God, while we look forward with hope to that wonderful day when the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed. He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds.’ Titus 2:11-14(NLT)
We need to realize that what we often want is not what scripture gives us. What we want, are answers to our day-to-day questions. How can I better communicate with my wife? Like, what do you do when you grab dinner on your way home and then you find out that your wife prepared a meal? You eat it. It will be the best pound or two you gain in your life. These are the sort of issues we’d like to talk about.
This is not what God gives us in His word. When you look at the marriage-specific passages, that is not the focus. When you get to these passages in the New Testament, they come at the end of long passages that deal with larger issues about salvation, and then when they get to the marriage issues, they are surprisingly brief and simple. Contrast that to what you see when you walk into a bookstore and you see the marriage section. What do you see? You see lots of volumes that deal with marriage. Contrast also with the hunger you find from people to go to marriage seminar weekends, videos, and talks, bringing home books. I understand the desire. I just want you to see the contrast between the amounts we give to this subject in book form versus the focus it’s given in the word of God.
When we believe in the sufficiency of Scripture, it allows us to believe that the Scripture not only supplies our answers but guides us in our questions. If we will discipline ourselves to ask the questions the Scripture raises, then we will find that the Scripture supplies the answers to the questions it raises.
You will also find that when you embrace what Scripture does reveal, it is amazing how the indwelling truth teacher, how the indwelling Christ our Lord will guide us to respond to these practical issues that we face in our day-to-day lives. In other words, if you get the big things right, it’s amazing how God takes care of the smaller things.
from Keys To A Successful Marriage