The Bible measures love not primarily by what you want to receive and gain, but rather by how much you are willing to give of yourself to someone else for their gain.
Jesus said,‘greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.’(John 15:13). Total, self-giving, sacrificial commitment; this is the most powerful demonstration of love we could ever experience.
This is why the covenant of marriage is intended to serve as such a powerful display of love. In marriage you are saying to the other person ‘I love you enough to close off all my options, I love you enough to give myself exclusively and permanently to you. I love you enough to make a binding commitment to you, from this day, for your good, for all time.’
When individuals just choose to live together in intimate relationship without getting married, they are actually revealing that their love for one another is not strong, deep or great enough to commit wholeheartedly and exclusively to the one they claim to love – it is cheap and convenient love. This kind of uncommitted relationship is based on what works for me, I don’t want to make it permanent in case things change. I’m not willing to love you to the end.
But true love runs deep. Marriage is about covenant love, a love that commits to the other, not on the basis of feelings, although feelings are obviously present and important, but in marriage I declare, irrespective of what I will feel in the future, that I commit myself to faithfully serve you in love, till death us do part.
So, to those of us who are married, let us, with the grace of God as our foundation and our hope, resolve to be the husbands and wives that God calls us to be, and let us make the glory of God and the honour of Christ and the display of the Gospel and the good of our spouse, the foundation and central goal of our marriages, for it is more blessed to give than to receive. (Acts 20:35)
‘… for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and cherish, till death us do part, according to God’s holy law, and this is my solemn vow.’
Post by: Martin Coleman