Matthew 19:4-6 (ESV)
4 He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them
from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘Therefore a man
shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two
shall become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What
therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
Have you noticed how a declining stock market feeds on
itself? As people see their share values go down, they feel the urge to sell.
When the herd is selling, prices decline further. The same is true of marriage
attitudes. As more children are born into unwed homes, fewer children have a
working marriage model to imitate. “Normal” is redefined.
The Pharisees at Jesus’ time (as well as Jesus’ own
disciples!) were convinced that lifelong marriage was too heavy an expectation
and advocated for quick and easy divorce. They were shocked by Jesus’ strong
reaction: “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator
‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his
father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one
flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one” (Matthew 19:4-6).
In other words, marriage doesn’t belong to people to
experiment and play with. It belongs to God. It is his invention, designed
during creation week itself.
Jesus said that couples are joined together. The phrase in
its original Greek means “stuck like glue.” Marriage superglues you to your
partner; you are no longer “me” but “we”. In God’s marriage math, one plus one
equals one.
Dear Lord, we pray today that in our marriages we would think
as we instead of me. We pray that the glue would stick us together and we wouldn’t
tear it apart. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment