Marriage as God would have it (Conclusion)
Outside our relationship with God, the marriage relationship is the most important relationship in all the world. It seems, however, that many have forgotten this great truth over time. But what can be done when people realize their marriage needs work? We have sought to answer that question, at least in principle, from Rev. 2:1-7, which is a portion of the letter sent to the church at Ephesus. Verse 4 identifies the condemnation leveled against them, “Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love…” (Rev. 2:4). Verse 5 then records the solution (remember, repent, and do the first works again).
Thus far in this series of articles on marriage as God would have it, we have considered the first two steps to restoring one’s first love, that of remembering what one had in the beginning and repenting of shortcomings. In today’s article, we will examine the last step, that of DOING THE FIRST WORKS AGAIN. Simply stated, joy comes to those marriage partners who meet each other’s needs. Before marriage people often sincerely seek to know those needs and to meet them. It was the driving force behind the decision to make the relationship last in marriage (or at least should have been). That same commitment must characterize the marriage relationship for the duration of the marriage.
Above all, there must be true commitment to the marriage as promised before God during the marriage ceremony. Divorce is never to be held as an option. Steve Farrar in his book, Point Man, drives home the point about commitment: "Hernando Cortes had a plan. He wanted to lead an expedition into Mexico to capture its vast treasures. When he told the Spanish governor his strategy, the governor got so excited that he gave him eleven ships and seven hundred men. Little did the governor know that Cortes had failed to tell him the entire plan. After months of travel, the eleven ships landed in Veracruz in the spring of 1519. As soon as the men unloaded the ships, Cortes instituted the rest of his plan. He burned the ships. That’s what you call commitment. That’s what you call no turning back. That’s what you call burning your bridges. Cortes didn’t have any bridges, so he burned the ships. By burning the ships, Cortes eliminated the options. He didn’t know what he would encounter on his expeditions to the interior. He didn’t know the strength of the people he would be fighting. But he did know this: there was no escape routes for his men. If the fighting got too fierce, or the expedition got too exhausting, there would be no talk about going back to Veracruz and sailing home. In one fail swoop, he had not only eliminated their options, but had created an intensely powerful motivation to succeed. Like it or not, they were committed".
God intended the same mindset of commitment to exist in the marriage relationship. Please don’t allow, or expect, the possibility of failure in your marriage. Work to build the kind of marriage that would please God and bless your family and mankind. If there are problems in your marriage, then remember, repent, and do the first works again.