The other day, as I
was leafing through the pages of my Bible, I notice a diagram I had made from
either a sermon or a teaching some years back.
The diagram depicted a simple truth.
God loves us and because of that love we are to love others. You can find that in Matthew 22:37-39 when Jesus
condensed all of the Law into two commands – Love God and Love Others. Also in 1 John 4:19 – We love because He
loved us first. Love is so important
which is why Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
“If I speak in the tongues of men or of
angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge,
and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am
nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship
that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.”
That love is at the
root of a marriage relationship or should be if that relationship is to glorify
God and be what He intended it to be. If the relationship is based on something
else, then it will fall short. Well –
there’s more – in Ephesians 5:25 – Paul wrote that husbands are to love
their wives as Christ loved the Church. Meaning
that the husband must be willing to lay his life down for his wife. Give up his dreams even. The husband has been given great responsibility
as the head of the wife. With
responsibility comes authority. The problem
is that many men want to cling to the authority part and shirk their
responsibility as the “spiritual” head of the family. 1 Peter 2 and 3, Peter wrote about
submission. That wives should submit to their husbands. Submit to what? His God-given authority. In
today’s “progressive” culture, many woman struggle with this. Why? Because they don’t trust their husbands
to NOT abuse their authority and shirk their responsibility. But – Peter goes
on to say “Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your
wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with
you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.”
In Ephesians 5:22-24
talks about mutual submission out of reverence for Christ. “Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands
as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the
head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church
submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.”
All of this love and
submission is in the context of our faith and not our natural life. The problem is that many see it as problematic
because they are looking at it through the lens of their natural, sinful
life.
The bottom line is
that success in marriage is dependent upon both partners mutually submitted to
each other and both submitted to the Spirit of God– loving each other with the love
of God. And if things don’t seem to be working – evaluate that. When a marriage fails, most assuredly the
culprit will be our sin nature. And if
you are unevenly yoked – one of you is not a Christian – that does not relieve
the Christian of their responsibility to obey God. There is so much more to be said – but so many
have already said it. Love each other
just like Jesus and the Father loves you. It takes faith to do that. CHARLEY
No comments:
Post a Comment