FOCUS

I Was Just Thinking About – FOCUS.

This coming Friday, June 9th, my wife and I will celebrate our 61st Wedding Anniversary. In the past, marriage was often referred to as Holy Matrimony. Why is it seen as “Holy Matrimony”? The basic principle for marriage is established in Genesis 2:22-24, “Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said: This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called: Woman, for she was taken out of man. That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.”

These are significant words that occasioned Jesus, when he was questioned about divorce by the Pharisees, stated in Matthew 19:4-6, “Haven’t you read, 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 flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

The Apostle Paul uses the marriage principle in reference to Jesus Christ and His relationship to The Church. His enunciation of holy matrimony is indicated in Ephesians 5:25-33, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her TO MAKE HER HOLY…In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church, for we are members of his body. For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”

There has been a loss of focus about many things in the contemporary culture, not the least of which is marriage. The Biblical mandate for marriage is in terms Agape Love – Love as God so loved the world and as Christ manifested through His death on the cross. Agape love contains the idea of sacrifice in behalf of one another. It is seeking after completeness and the development of oneness in a relationship. One’s spouse should be the best human friend one has. The words of I Corinthians 13:4-8 should never be viewed as trite. They express both the focus and dimension of ‘holy matrimony’ as God wants and requires: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs. Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” 

Prayerfully – consider these things with me.