November 7, 2008
Godly Marriage
Posted by Pastor John Loppnow
To be made in the image of God is to reflect and participate in relationships founded on love (as described in 1 Cor 13). As human beings we must wrestle with two natures: our sinful fallen nature (as we depend upon ourselves – self-will) and our God given nature that is enlivened and empowered by the Spirit of God. As people who follow and look to Jesus on how to live a good life, we can learn from God, who is three in one, how to live in relationships of love. Jack & Judy Balswick state, in their book A Model for Marriage, “The love shared among the persons of the Trinity and love of the triune God for us provides the best model for our love relationships (p.26).” A marriage built on biblical principles looks to our God for a vision of what it means to love. Anything less than giving and receiving love (as God loves us) is living from our sinful nature. As we learn to love like God we participate in His divine nature (find scripture). Not only will our spouse and families experience the goodness of this, but also people who do not know God will “know us by our love (John 13:35).”
The Balswick’s go on to show the theology of an increasingly mature covenant between two spouses. They present the biblical principles of covenant, grace, empowerment and intimacy as the basis for a resilient marriage (p.38). They depict these four principles in a circle as interrelated in an ongoing, deepening process.
“When spouses live according to the covenant principle, “to love and be loved,” the grace principle, “to forgive and be forgiven,” the empowerment principle, “to serve and be served,” through mutual servanthood, and the intimacy principle, “to know and be known,” they will reap the rich rewards of following God’s more excellent ways (p. 38).”
Using the Balswick’s taxonomy as a vision for our marriages as well as the way we relate to one another in our families and church, we then can see that heading in the opposite direction will lead us towards trouble and broken relationships.
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