Honour your marriage

Thou shalt not commit adultery. – Exodus 20.14

Marriage is God’s oldest institution. God laid out His plan early when He told Adam and Eve that a man will leave his father and mother, cleave to his wife, and they will be one flesh. And God never changed His standard. The world can redefine marriage anyway they want, but for God’s people it is one man and one woman for a lifetime. No matter how times change or cultural mores shift God’s plan is the same and even if no one else holds to God’s plan His children must.

It is put pretty clearly here – you shall not commit adultery. Jesus expanded the idea of what adultery was when He said ‘if you look on a woman with lust in your heart you have already committed adultery.' 

Why does God set such a premium on faithfulness in marriage? In a world that cheapens sex and makes it more of an entertainment than an expression of love why are God’s children told to treasure and honour their marriages by faithfulness and purity?

Part of it is out of God’s perfect love and compassion as our heavenly Father. Nothing is more precious than loving someone and having a lifelong relationship with them alone. There is joy and security and comfort in having a life-long partner to grow old with. Mary and I are approaching 38 years of love and compassion and sharing and joys and struggles and good times and bad times and faithfulness. I am so grateful that God has given us each other. God says to stay pure because it is key in protecting our marriages which should be the source of pure joy and contentment.  

But even more important is the picture that marriage was intended to portray. All through the Old Testament marriage was, as Paul called it, a great mystery. It was a hidden truth to be revealed in Christ.

What is this mystery?

Marriage is a picture of the relationship of Christ and the church. Therefore unfaithfulness in marriage pictures unfaithfulness in our relationship with God. It ruins the image if the purity between Christ and His bride.

It can be a struggle today to keep our marriages pure with all the images and ideas around us. We must protect our hearts and minds because if we can protect them we will protect our actions.

Do not commit adultery. Do not commit adultery of the heart or mind or eyes or body. Let us keep ourselves pure.