Eric and Sarah were radiant, all aglow with the excitement of their wedding day. Eric is our assistant pastor, Sarah his beautiful bride. More than once I found myself with a lump in my throat as I sat by my bride of 36 years. Part of me felt a sense of caution for our young friends.
Do they have any inkling of the difficulties of forming a good marriage? No, and that’s a good thing or they might not have even started the journey!
Will they find the courage and the depth of faith to build a marriage that honors the Lord and brings them real joy? That question I believe is can be answered in the affirmative because this couple, from the first, has committed themselves to Christ, as Lord.
People who want to enjoy a life-long, growing, emotionally satisfying marriage will surrender large chunks of autonomy. Simply put, for those who are married, "me" exists less and less and "we" becomes foremost! The Word urges all disciples to a life of unselfish service including those who are married. Some spouses mistakenly think the marriage license includes permission for rudeness or selfishness. Here's what God says. "Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human!" (Philippians 2:4-7, The Message)
Ephesians teaches Husbands that they are ‘love their wives as their own bodies.’ (6:28) Wives are directed to let their husbands be their servant leader in that same passage. The commands are inter-connected, one demanding the other. The husband cannot love his wife as Christ loves the Church if she keeps herself independent from him. Nor, can she trust a self-centered, foolish man to lead her to an emotionally satisfying, spiritually healthy life. But as both turn often to Jesus Christ, and ask the Holy Spirit to bring about transformation in their lives, a new unit called a ‘godly marriage’ starts to develop that makes each person in the marriage healthier, stronger, and more effective in life than they could be without their spouse! Two really do become a new one!
How many marriages do you see that enjoy that kind of love, playfulness, shared devotion, and spiritual depth?
A Christ-centered marriage that is radiant with love is one of the strongest testimonies to the reality of the Gospel of Christ Jesus. Such a relationship does not just ‘happen’ because two people are well-adjusted psychologically, or highly compatible emotionally, or similar in world view or education. It is created by two disciples of Christ who pursue Him whole-heartedly, dying to Self, and seeking His love. That love in turn allows them to become a great lover. (Yes, think more than sex!) From the Spirit and His Church come the resources and tools to deal with effects of sin, old hurts and resentments, temptation to serve self over the family, and even the mistakes that will inevitably be made.
Eric and Sarah- we love you and pray for you! May Jesus Christ be always at the center of your lives and allow the two of you to become one wholly new thing as your lives are blended interdependently in covenant marriage.
Here is the word from the Word. Let it comfort and challenge you this day.
"Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." (1 Corinthians 13:4-7, NKJV)
"This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. … This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers." (1 John 3:11, 16, NIV)
No comments:
Post a Comment