As my son Daniel prepares for his wedding day with Anna, a thought popped into my mind recently: “what does marriage really mean?” While the world has its own ideas and stigmas, the Bible is clear about Holy Matrimony. As one first century Pharisee tried to test Jesus’ biblical knowledge, the passage below provides a clear answer. Marriage is a mutual covenant where two people learn to become one flesh.
And Pharisees came to Him and put Him to the test by asking, Is it lawful and right to dismiss and repudiate and divorce one’s wife for any and [a]every cause? 4 He replied, Have you never read that He Who made them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 And said, For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be united firmly (joined inseparably) to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder (separate), Matthew 19:3-6.
Before my wife Leanne and I got married back in 1995, we attended a Marriage Encounter in Cleveland, Ohio. While I have been to numerous Christian conferences and retreats over the course of my wife, the wisdom shared by godly couples on staged has stuck with me. Entering into a Christian marriage requires a will to love your spouse. Although feelings come and go, developing a will to love, no matter what happens, is what marriage means to me.
Wives, be subject (be submissive and adapt yourselves) to your own husbands as [a service] to the Lord. 23 For the husband is head of the wife as Christ is the Head of the church, Himself the Savior of [His] body. 24 As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands. 25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 So that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, 27 That He might present the church to Himself in glorious splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such things [that she might be holy and faultless]. 28 Even so husbands should love their wives as [being in a sense] their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself. 29 For no man ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and carefully protects and cherishes it, as Christ does the church, Ephesians 5:22-29.
While writing a first century letter to the Church at Ephesus, the apostle Paul lays out what it means for each new couple to want to become part of a Christian marriage. If Jesus was willing to lay down his life for his friends, Romans 5:8 and John 15:12-14, newlyweds should be willing to serve their soulmate. As two human beings symbolically become one, change can be hard, especially if you struggle with being in control. Yet, if the Lord is Lord of both believers, marriage will become a lifelong journey, where faith guides you through the storms that you must go through together.
by Jay Mankus
ExpressYourself4Him 