‘Understand, therefore, that the Lord your God is indeed God. He is the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations and lavishes his unfailing love on those who love him and obey his commands. ‘ Deuteronomy 7:9(NLT)
‘For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything. For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. And we are members of his body. As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.’ Ephesians 5:22-33(NLT)
Scripture: Deuteronomy 7:9, Ephesians 5:22–33
Marriage is designed by God to be a lifelong, covenant relationship between one man and one woman that gives a picture of Christ’s loving relationship with His bride, the church.
The Bible teaches that the unconditional, unbreakable covenant relationship of marriage is similar in many ways to God’s covenant relationship with His children: “I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Sovereign LORD, and you became mine,” (Ezekiel 16:8).
God did not create marriage to make you happy. In fact, my friend Gary Thomas, in his book Sacred Marriage, says it this way, “What if God designed marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy?” Happiness might be the by-product of a godly marriage, but God never promised that marriage will make you happy. No human relationship will ever fulfill you, bring you ultimate happiness, or complete you.
If you don’t have a biblical view of marriage, then you are likely to seek a way out once your spouse disappoints you. You will have unmet expectations—every couple does. Your spouse will let you down, and you will let your spouse down. When this happens, your foundational view of marriage will impact the actions you take and the way you respond. Because God’s love for you is not dependent on your actions, your commitment to your spouse shouldn’t be either.
By the end of this week, my hope for you is to have a strong understanding about the status of your premarried relationship. I believe you will find yourself in one of three places: 1) you will realize you are ready to tie the knot as you move forward, confirmed in your decision to get married; 2) you will pause the direction you are going—you are not ready to break up, but you’re also not ready to get married until you make some changes; or 3) you will come to the realization that the best decision you can make is to break up and go your separate ways. Building the foundation to a life-long marriage requires a willingness to tackle the hard topics with your significant other before the vows are exchanged.
Do you think of marriage as a conditional contract you can get out of or as a life-long covenant designed by God, intended to mirror His love for us? Why did you answer this way?
from Ready Or Knot? by Scott Kedersha