Until Divorce Us Do Part
So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
Ephesians 5:28
Thousands of times a day a man and a woman stand before an American clergyman or magistrate to be united in marriage. In virtually every ceremony they vow to remain married “until death us do part.”
Tragically, one out of two of these vows will never be fulfilled because divorce now parts one out of every two married couples. A recent Census Bureau report found that for women in their thirties, 60 percent of them can expect to be divorced. Sixty percent!
There are three elements to a successful marriage, and each needs to be present if a marriage is to succeed. The first is love. Unfortunately, love has been redefined by Hollywood and television to mean something that is only physical, only feelings. But the apostle Paul defined love beautifully in 1 Corinthians 13. Read it and you will know how God defined love. Men are to love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it. What woman could not respond and submit to such a selfless expression of Christ-like love?
Maturity is the second important ingredient in a successful marriage. Too many are getting a divorce at the first sign of trouble. God will give you the maturity to handle your problems even in what seems like a “wrong marriage” if you’ll let Him. He will do this because God hates divorce.
Third, faith must be an ingredient for a marriage to be successful. Marriage is difficult enough these days with all of life’s pressures, but without Christ at the center of a marriage and a home, it becomes even more difficult.
Determine to put Christ at the center of your individual lives and then at the center of your marriage and it cannot fail. Be faithful in your Bible reading and prayer time . . . together . . . as a family . . . and you will build a fortress around your marriage that can withstand any storm.
Our Father and our God, I strip off my selfishness, my pride, my fear, and lay them at the altar. Please take these things away from me so that my marriage and my home may be pure and strong. Give me gentleness, kindness, patience, and love in their place. And please give me the faith and courage to defend my family against Satan’s dangerous tricks. In Christ’s name. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).