“Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.” Hebrews 13:4
Many can try to redefine marriage but God chose it to be distinctly between one man and one woman.
Every married couple has the opportunity to represent the holy union of Christ and his church (see Eph 5:32). Christ being represented by the man and the church being represented by the woman.
Scripture Look on Marriage
“For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” Ephesians 5:31-32
“Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.” Revelation 19:7
“And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.” Revelation 19:9
A Woman’s Meditation
I was inspired by my pastor’s sermon yesterday about preparing for the second coming of Christ. It struck home to me because of the parallels between preparing for Jesus to come for his bride, the church, and the life stage I am at as someone engaged to be married.
In life, we are preparing for the ultimate wedding where we will be united with Jesus and spend the rest of eternity in a beautiful marriage with Him.
I am preparing for my wedding so that I can spend the rest of my life in a beautiful marriage with Jeff. In my preparation, the world tells me my wedding has to look like the cover of a bride’s magazine and I need to stress over all of these perfect little details to have a successful wedding. The world tells you to be consumed by the wedding and doesn’t even mention the fact that really you should be preparing for your marriage.
Yes, some of the little details are important. We need a place, a time, witnesses, a marriage license, and a pastor. The name cards, the decor, and everything else that is so “important” in the magazines will not ultimately matter as long as I get to look Jeff in the eyes and repeat those vows that make us husband and wife and spend the rest of my life with him.
This is what I should be preparing for whether it be through studying marriage together or praying together about what our marriage will look like or just getting to know each other’s hearts more than ever.
This is the same with us in our Christian life. We are told we must be successful and our lives must look like the cover of a Forbes magazine. We are told that the details of this life are all that matter. However, we should be spending this life preparing for our eternity with Christ. We should be preparing for this marriage.
There are things we must still do like have jobs to support our families, put food on the table, etc, but the most important thing for us to do is to prepare for eternity with Him. We should study our relationship with Him, get to know His heart better, and look with hope to our future with Him. This is what is important.
The wedding details should all be in pursuit of the perfect marriage, not the perfect wedding. Our lives should be in pursuit of the perfect covenant relationship with Christ, not “success” in this tiny preparation stage called life. ~Hannah Watson (used with permission)
The Ultimate Union
“And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD.” Hosea 2:19-20
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