Happily Ever After: Colossians 3:18,19
Happily Ever After:
Colossians 3:18,19
Three Ways a Marriage Can End
There are three ways that a marriage will end. The first is divorce. This is never intended and painful for those who find this end to a marriage. The second is to live together in misery. While this is never desired, it is the easiest. Easy, because it avoids conflict and makes no effort to work through issues and make things better. It is the path of least resistance. It is also a painful and bitter outcome. The third is to enjoy the living together in marriage until the day you are parted by death or until Jesus returns.
As a Bible teacher, marriage is one of the most difficult topics to teach. Every couple is different. Cross cultural marriages are different. There are many assumptions that have to be made when teaching on marriage. With all this uniqueness and individuality, can blanket statements from the Bible possibly help? Listen and find out.
No Two Couples are the Same
There are a few assumptions and numerous difficulties when trying to give advice on marriage. First, we must assume that both people in the couple are relatively normal. They are not violent, psychologically needy, criminal, addicted to drugs and alcohol, unfaithful or a number of other abnormal factors. This may sound unkind, but if there are abnormal issues in the marriage relationship need counseling or perhaps more dramatic measures.
Second, culture plays such a large part of the assumptions in marriage. The outcomes desired, the approach to problem solving and child raising, expressions of intimacy, the level of family involvement in the marriage, etc. are all culturally determined and break down overly simplified suggestions.
Finally, every couple is unique. How flexible is each person? How traditional? What if the couple is not able to have children? What if they experience economic set backs? What about longterm illnesses? So many similar factors are processed differently by each individual.
The Bible’s Simple Way Forward
With this much potential complication, you might think we would find volumes of helpful instruction on marriage. But, we don’t. Instead, we find a few simple instructions. Then we have the liberty and leading of the Spirit to help us make sense of all the thousand of other complications.
Today, in Colossians 3:18,19, we will see one simple set of instructions to the wife and one simple set of instructions to the husband. My hope is that you discover the key to living in happiness with your partner until the end.
Blessings,
Rich
