June 19, 2008
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God and Marriage
Eph 5:22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
Eph 5:23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
Eph 5:24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.
Eph 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Eph 5:26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
Eph 5:27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
Eph 5:28 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
Eph 5:29 For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
Eph 5:30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
Eph 5:31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
Eph 5:32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
Eph 5:33 Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.I am concerned at how the church has looked a marriage in the past few years. Look at the divorce rate of “Christians.” It seems like there is an epidemic of divorce in the church. This is a serious problem. 70% of American’s believe divorce is morally acceptable.
Marriage is not something that was invented by man of society. Marriage is directly from God.
Marriage is God’s institution.
Marriage should be entered into with the deepest of commitments. It is tragic how easily people go in and out of marriage.
People enter into marriage today not thinking of it as they should. Not entering with deep commitment. Marriage is intended to be permanent.
Mat 19:3 The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?
Mat 19:4 And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,
Mat 19:5 And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?
Mat 19:6 Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.Jesus made it clear. God’s intention for marriage is to be permanent.
What are the purposes of marriage? What was God’s intention?
The primary purpose is stated in Genesis….It is not good for man to be alone.
Husband and wife enjoy companionship. It is how we were created. My husband is my best friend. We share things. This is God’s Purpose. Companionship is the primary purpose.Procreation is another purpose. God loves families. The attack on the family is really an attack against God. It is an attack against His institutions.
Marriage is also to show the world the relationship between Christ and the church.
Eph 5:32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
God wants to take your life, and your marriage and He wants to use that as an example of His love. He wants to use it to show the beauty of what He intended.
Marriage is what you make it. God’s picture is that it is a good thing. It will be good if we do it God’s way.
3 points…..
#1 If a marriage is going to glorify God the partners need a personal commitment to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Jesus needs to be the head.
#2 Need to live and walk in the spirit.
Eph 5:18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;
If I am going to live to glorify God. If my marriage is going to glorify God. I need to be filled with the spirit. Need to walk in the spirit. Walking in the spirit is walking in obedience. It is also walking in the power that God has available to us.
#3 We must obey instructions that God gives about our individual role in marriage.
Marriage is hard work. It is worth it. It is worth working for. It is worth fighting for.
God says two become one. What God joins together ….no one separate.
God bless you as you follow Him.
Comments (10)
May we all seek after His truths!
I agree that many people don’t take marriage as seriously as we once did, but that’s in no small part due to the fact that many of us feel the need to be partnered to avoid being alone. If more people would take the time to love themselves, not settle, be willing to grow as a person, then that divorce rate would drop. Though that has changed, too:
The U.S. divorce rate is 17.7 per 1,000 married women, down from 22.6 in 1980. The marriage rate is also on a steady decline: a 50% drop since 1970 from 76.5 per 1,000 unmarried women to 39.9, says the report, whose calculations are based on an internationally used measurement. (Divorce Declining, but so is Marriage)
But then again, I don’t know anyone who walks into a marriage and says, “You know what? I plan on getting divorced later.” I’m almost tempted to go on a ‘why people get divorced’ blog within your blog, as I am a divorcee, but I didn’t figure there would be a point. It’s not what your blog is about.
I was just thinking about this last night. Great post.
God Bless,
Chris
While I would in NO WAY whatsoever encourage anyone to marry an unbeliever- because I believe it is not scriptural, I DO believe my marriage glorifies God. In fact it glorifies God more than many of the Christian marriages I know.
I really enjoyed your post, but thought I would just like to point that out.
A marriage can be redeemed, a husband can still be led by God through the prayers of a wife, children can still be sanctified, and wives can still be submitted to a non-believer.
It all comes down to making sure that the believer is instep with the Spirit and fulfilling their ‘God given’ role in the family as you so rightly said.
x
Excellent, as always!
In the early Church, marriage was seen as one of the seven Sacraments. The word Sacrament means “an outward sign of an inward grace”.
In other words, Holy Matrimony is supposed to be a witness to the world of how Jesus loves His Church, and it is accomplished from start to finish by the grace of the Holy Spirit.
That’s why for years, couples considered it a sacrilege to marry outside the Church and Her Sacramental blessing.
Marriage should be a living ministry of how two imperfect people become one in Christ and roll up their spiritual sleeves to love unconditionally as an act of a will surendered to God, not to their feelings.
Marriage causes us to change for the better and bear fruit (natural and spiritual), despite challenging circumstances.
It should demonstrate how God will never give up on us, and how we are fashioned more into the image of Christ and sanctified as iron sharpens iron. Grace is given by the Holy Spirit, but never in isolation from another person, with whom it is tested and lived out.
The Church is supposed to be the standard in the earth for Faith and morals.
Could this be why we see the mockeries in California and elsewhere?
Amen to what you said…..many “Christians” are not commited to their spouse….they prob are not real commited to Christ also….
Right on, right on, right on. We’ve got 30 yrs. +
and better every year.
Very true! God bless!
I agree that a lack of commitment to marriage is just a lack of respect for humanity. People are not disposable, nor should anyone treat them as such.
If people could only learn to live life to the fullest as single persons, then perhaps there wouldn’t be so many casual marriage decisions. Besides, if someone isn’t happy with him/herself, there isn’t a person in the world that can fix it for him/her.
Great post, it always a good reminder what God intended for marriage to be, we just had are 43 year anniversary on June 5, the years fly by so fast, and God has been there for us through the good times and not so good times. have a blessed weekend
sandy