Christian Marriage Today

Knot Untying 101

As I was thinking about all the second marriages, ended marriages and ex-spouses, I lamented the state of “Christian marriages” today. It seems as if they were truly Christian, they’d be centered on him, not on the spouses. Yet, one or both become disillusioned, disappointed, or otherwise discombobulated and they trot off to a divorce lawyer, who in turn makes another gleeful trip to the bank with the legal fees.

Okay, that’s an oversimplification. Too often the grievances are quite real, but it still means at least one of the blissful couple fowled up badly enough for the other to call it quits. Whether the “innocent” party was truly innocent, refused to consider forgiveness and reconciliation, or was just looking for an excuse to split, only God knows for sure. No matter who was at fault for the failed marriage, God hates divorce.

So, why get married?

If God had intended women only for reproduction, he could as easily have created man with asexual reproduction, but he removed the rib and formed it into a unique being. God made man in-complete in order to complete him.

And Jehovah God formed the rib which He had taken from the man into a woman, and brought her to the man.

(Gen 2:22 LITV)

Ecc 4:9-12 LITV

(9) Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labor.

(10) For if they fall, this one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him, the one that falls, and there is not another to lift him up.

(11) Also if two lie together, then they have warmth; but for one, how is he warm?

(12) And if one overthrows him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly torn apart. (The threefold cord includes God as the strongest strand.)

Together, these passages point out that people—especially male and female-type people—need each other. God did not create men and women to live in monasteries and convents, but to complement and help one another. In the fallen world, with our current self-centered expectations, only a very few couples are sufficiently compatible to remain together for life. But in a marriage centered on Jesus, though the spouses will experience much of the same misunderstanding, disillusionment and disappointment, Godly love will overcome all human weaknesses.