“Jesus replied, ‘Marriage is for people here on earth. But in the age to come, those worthy of being raised from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage.’” (Luke 20:34 NLT)
There are things about marriage that are wonderful, enjoyable, and endearing, but there are parts of marriage that are hard, discouraging, and can be debilitating. We tend not to give the hard parts much credence when our hormones are raging, and our heart is beating with “love” for this “perfect” human being the Lord has put into our life.
As the years unfold, we begin to see more clearly, not only how imperfect we are, but how unlike the person we married is in comparison to how we envisioned they would be. Isn’t that very much like what we see when we compare how we viewed our life when we started our walk with the Lord and how we see things after having been His child for many years?
There’s no question, the Lord certainly got the short end of the proverbial “stick.” We might have been tempted to believe the Lord got quite a prize when He got us, but time and spiritual maturity reveal a more complete picture and enable us to see ourselves in a much more accurate way.
Tim Keller wrote: “The gospel helps us to understand marriage and marriage helps us to understand the gospel.” That sounds very reasonable, but how so? What is it about marriage that enables us to see the Gospel more clearly and vice versa?
In marriage our focus is so much on ourselves, we miss a lot about the person we “love” because we’re so focused on how they’ll meet our needs. We don’t want to think about how we’ll need to change and adapt to this other person’s wants and desires. It’s not unlike that when we first come to Christ.
Forgiveness of sins and eternal life, what’s not to love about that? Then we start hearing words like self-lessness, self-discipline, obedience, submission, authority and we realize in order to be a child of God we’re going to have to do more than say a prayer, we’re going to have to commit everything we are to everything He is, learn to hear His voice and walk in obedience to His directives. It’s a lifelong process that grows richer and deeper the longer we walk with Him.
But how is this even possible? Because it’s the activity of the Lord in and through us as we grow in Him. Matt Capps gives us insight when he writes: “Religion says God will love us if we change. The gospel says God will change us because He loves us.” Marriage is the perfect context in which to allow the Lord to grow us up in Him.
To the extent we, as husband and wife, yield our life and allegiance to Jesus, to that extent we’ll grow in our likeness of Him, thus growing closer to one another. When we are unequally yoked, as the Bible describes in 2 Corinthians 6:14, we create a barrier that will prevent a couple from true intimacy, not only with the Lord, but with each other.
This principle can also be seen in individuals and couples with nominal commitments to the Lord and/or to each other. Satan is a master in dividing our heart in our love of the Lord and in our marital allegiance and bringing misery to those who aren’t equal in their love and devotion to the Lord or to each other.
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 