ICS Daily Devotions
Covenant Marriage
Malachi 2:14 (NKJV) Yet you say, “For what reason?” Because the LORD has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, with whom you have dealt treacherously; yet she is your companion and your wife by covenant.
When Adam and Eve chose to live independently from God by disobeying Him, sin and individualism entered the world. Unfortunately, individualism is the deathbed of marriage.
Marriage today is all about the big “I”. If the relationship ceases to give people what they want or if things get tough, they will just walk away and start all over again. What many people fail to realise is that each marriage partner brings years of mental, emotional, and spiritual baggage into the marriage relationship, and the adjustments that are required after getting married can be challenging.
Rather than facing their problems together and working on their relationships, many couples opt for the easy way out through divorce, whereby hearts are broken, and homes destroyed, and the collateral damage has a rippling effect across society.
Most people today view marriage as a social contract governed by the state and negotiated between the two sovereign people who share the same bed, but when viewed as a contract, the couple will always think in terms of conditions, limits, rights, and even “outs”.
Marriage is like a house, and a solid foundation is needed to ensure that it lasts. The bedrock upon which the foundation must rest is an unconditional, mutual covenant that allows no external or internal circumstances to put asunder the marital union that God Himself has established.
When God created for Adam a helper, He intended them to be one flesh, not just through physical union, but also to become one in their goals, wills, emotions, minds and spirits, and to go through life as one single entity.
The Lord is the unseen witness when we exchange marriage vows in entering into a marriage covenant. God expects us to honour the covenant as He Himself honours His covenant with us.
His plan also includes our relationships with Him. Like a cord of three strands which is not easily broken, the third person in a Christian marriage is Jesus Himself who will hold and bind the marriage together in the bond of love.
As Christians, we have a covenant relationship with God and a marriage covenant with our spouse. Therefore, as long as we model our marriage after the covenant that God has with us, our marriage will be a lasting one.
Sermon Series: Affluenza
