Marriages are sacred partnerships that are to be honored way above any other relationship we have in this life, being second only to our relationship with God. We should treat our spouses better than we do other people, and we should value our relationship with the person God has entrusted to us far more than we value any other connection. Simply put, we should hold our marriages in high esteem.
Many couples today, however, put their marriage on the backburner, and that is why so many divorces and separations happen in different places in the world. This is not right. Not only does divorce and separation grieve the heart of God, it also devastates the lives of those affected by it.
Friends, we should hold marriage in high regard. We should honor it. We must take extra care to set it apart from other relationships that we have: with our parents, friends, colleagues, clients, acquaintances, and other people that we know.
Let the Bible instruct you
To help us set our marriages apart from other relationships, God has given us different instructions in His Word, found in the Bible. These instructions will allow us to enjoy our marriages the way God intended us to, and enable them to propel us to greater heights in satisfaction, happiness, and productivity with regards to God's will for our lives.
Here are some of them.
Be wholly united and transparent with your spouse – Genesis 2:24-25
"Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and they will become one flesh. They were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed."
Reserve your intimacies for each other only – Proverbs 5:15-20
"Drink waters out of your own cistern, and running waters out of your own well. Should your fountains be dispersed abroad, streams of water in the streets? Let them be only your own, and not for strangers with you. Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of your youth. Let her be as the loving deer and pleasant doe; let her breasts satisfy you at all times; and always be enraptured with her love. Why should you, my son, be intoxicated by an immoral woman, and embrace the bosom of a seductress?"
Commit to help each other, not put one another down – Ecclesiastes 4:9-12
"Two are better than one, because there is a good reward for their labor together. For if they fall, then one will help up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has no one to help him up. Also if two lie down together, then they will keep warm; but how can one keep warm by himself? And if someone might overpower another by himself, two together can withstand him. A threefold cord is not quickly broken."
Scratch divorce or separation off your list of options – Mark 10:6-9
"But from the beginning of the creation, God 'made them male and female.' 'For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh.' So then they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.""
Commit to pointing your longings, romantic affections, and sexual desires towards your spouse alone – Job 31:1, 9-11
"I made a covenant with my eyes not to look with lust at a young woman ... If my heart has been seduced by a woman, or if I have lusted for my neighbor's wife, then let my wife serve another man; let other men sleep with her. For lust is a shameful sin, a crime that should be punished." (NLT)
A final note
Friends, let us all honor our marriages. It's an honor to be given a lifetime partner as we live this life. Let's respond in gratitude by treating our respective spouse with the love that God wants us to give.
"But as the church submits to Christ, so also let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it..." (Ephesians 5:24-25)
