A Spiritually Good Marriage 1-Cor.7:39 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO
We have prepared a three-broadcast series on marriage. The first part is on a spiritually good marriage. That is a marriage that is established on a good spiritual foundation. A spiritually good marriage requires these five things:
Salvation – 1 Cor 7:39, “she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.” To have a spiritually good marriage, it is very important that both the husband and the wife are “in the Lord.” There’s trouble enough in marriage without complicating it by having one spouse saved and the other spouse unsaved. You are better off not marrying. To avoid the possibility that you might marry an unsaved person, don’t date people who are not saved. If you are already married and your spouse is not saved, then follow 1 Cor 7:13-16. The saved spouse should be very faithful in attending to the things of the Lord. Often, this is not the case. Rather, the saved spouse shirks his or her responsibilities to the Lord to keep “peace” in the marriage. That’s not the way to have a spiritually strong marriage.
Fellowship with Jesus Christ – 1 Jn 1:3, “and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” It is one thing to be saved and another thing to be in fellowship with the Lord. There are saved couples who struggle more than they should in their marriage because Jesus Christ is not at the center of their relationship. Jesus should be at the center and head of your marriage. Then, as in the case of a pyramid, where Jesus is at the head and each spouse is in one of the corners, the closer that each spouse is to the Lord, the closer they will be to each other!!! Have devotions together. Spend time together in fellowship with the Lord.
Fear of the Lord – Eph 5:21, “submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.” A spiritually good marriage will survive intense pressure when the spouses fear God and do not divorce. God fearing couples get through trouble when they fear the Lord. The difficulties that should destroy them, in fact, make them stronger and the fear of the Lord is what keeps them together through their difficulties. Every marriage endures stresses and strains. They are the ingredients that strengthen your commitment to each other, if you can survive them. When you fear God, you obey him and you look to him rather than men to fix your problems. And he can fix them better than anyone else in the world.
Contentment – 1 Tim 6:6, “but godliness with contentment is great gain.” It is vital to your marriage that you learn to be content in your relationship with Jesus Christ. Marriages often collapse because one spouse or the other is not content. It is not the duty of your spouse to make you happy or content. Contentment is something that comes from your relationship to Jesus. The strongest marriages are the ones where each spouse is godly and content. That combination yields the greatest gain individually and mutually in the marriage.
Church Attendance – Heb 10:25, “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more as you see the day approaching.” You must regularly and faithfully be under the preaching and teaching of God’s words. A spiritually good marriage is strengthened in a good church. Be sure you are active in a Bible teaching, Bible preaching, Bible believing church. Anything short of that is merely a religious social club and won’t do you much good.
Conclusion: these are some simple spiritual ingredients that yield a spiritually good marriage. In the other broadcasts in this series we will deal with some practical considerations and with some individual responsibilities of husbands and wives.