Til Death?

"I think the institute of marriage is a noble thing. I think the idea of a partner for life is incredibly romantic. But now we're living to 100. A hundred years ago people were dying at age 37. Til death do us part was a much different deal."


I read this quote recently and thought about the marriages I see. I have found in my short life that 20 years in a marriage often signals the death knell of a union, as people move on to someone who makes them more "content", excited, special, or any number of feelings that don't coincide with the Bible's view! This reality of our secular view on marriages really made me more and more determined to root my marriage in the Bible, as I cannot conceive that anything apart from His grace can save my marriage from the infiltration of the surrounding culture.

But I am more and more aware of the needs of being aware and awake to cultural norms within our nation. I find that looking at the cultural mores of marriage have more than anything else convinced me of our residing in a post christian nation. Let's face it other nations are going to be sending their missionaries our way now and into the coming years. Those of us who actually accept and confess the truths of the gospel have to be wiling to engage this current status quo with the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. I hope that in the future followers of Christ will boldly proclaim and even more boldly live the truths of not just biblical marriage but biblical everything.

If we are going to embrace the cost of the gospel in our marriages we cannot make excuses like "God wants me to be happy!" We cannot find our refuge in ease by saying "I'm over 37 and this person cannot satisfy me any further!" I mean we aren't talking about cars here people!! I wonder when the person you married became more like an outfit you needed to donate and go shopping for something new? I hope that because the gospel teaches the value in all people and the importance of marital fealty we can trust in the continuity of many of the believing marriages we know!

I hope that we can raise the awareness upon the lies that we are propagating as an American culture that doesn't support the mandate of the bible; "^{1 Cor 7:39} A wife is bound as long as her husband is living. But if her husband dies, she is free to be married to anyone she wants—only in the Lord." or "Eph 5:^28-29 In the same way, husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hates his own flesh but provides and cares for it, just as Christ does for the church."

So as much as we might think, "people are living longer and cannot be satisfied with the same person longer than 20 years" we know that God doesn't condone or encourage this unloving and selfish attitude.