Smeagol is Free!
A hermitudinal view of...stuff...


11.13.2004  

Marriage

I told Andrew it burns in me. It burns...it positively burns.



We both were pretty hardcore Bachelor to the Rapture devotees. The shirts were going to be printed, Goose was President of the club, and our lives were to be grand, spent in service to the King. It is, then, in some ways so very strange that I should tell Andrew that this burns within me. It is even stranger still that I, the Most Single Man on Earth, the Old Single Guy at Boyce College, should be writing this.



Today, I will speak of marriage. I almost hate to write this because logic says I have no right to speak of what I have not experienced; yet as I told Andrew, it burns in me. Therefore, I must speak of it.



In the past two months, I've been forced to consider Ephesians 5:22 - 33 in an entirely different light.



Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body. FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.



As I thought about this hitherto uncouth desire to be single no longer, the Lord showed me something that I now rejoice greatly in: His amazing grace at work in my heart. How so? It comes down to what marriage is. The very definition of marriage is trampled upon with reckless abandon. I speak not of secular marriage, but of marriage within our churches. I speak of the horrible examples that Andrew and I have had growing up. I speak of my own parents, particularly my father, who never truly understood what marriage is. I speak of the myriad marriages I see around me or can think of back at home that do not truly honor the Lord, all because their understanding of marriage is flawed to begin with.



Do you see why I'm so hesitant to speak on this? This isn't your standard Preaching to the Choir. This is the Single Guy telling the Married people what's wrong with their marriages. Oh, the irony is profound. Maybe someday I'll enjoy it, because right now I'm only saddened and broken.



Ephesians 5 speaks of marriage being a picture of Christ and the Church...not the other way around. The Lord did not send Christ as the Bridegroom to redeem His bride in order to give us an idea of what marriage is to be like. NO!!! He gave us marriage to remind us ceaselessly of how Christ relates to His bride! He gave us marriage to remind us that it is Christ who has laid down His life for His bride, who cherishes her as His own flesh, who nourishes her because we are members of His body! He gave us marriage for us to see that Christ sanctifies us with the washing of water with the word! Why? That we the Church, His bride, might be holy and blameless and having no spot or wrinkle or blemish when we are presented to Him! That is the purpose of marriage, and if we miss it, we are doomed. Why? Because if we do not understand that marriage is to be to us the very living out of Christ's love for His bride and her surrendering love to Him, we will never truly embrace the God-given roles that we have as men and women. Marriage will never be as full as it was meant to be unless we see and savor the truth of not only Christ's love for His bride, but also the truth of her submission to His loving and sacrificial service to her. It is in the interaction between husband and wife that we are to see the interaction between Christ and His bride.



I told Andrew that my heart burns with that desire...it burns with the desire to cherish, to nourish, to lay down my life for my bride, that I might sanctify her and cleanse her with the washing of water with the word. I do indeed desire to love her and to serve her, for she would be to me as my own body, and I would be the head. Andrew knows me well. I told him that I'm one of the most laid-back, non-leading type of guys anyone could run across. He knows that well. If I do any leading, it's because the Lord would have me lead, and I embrace whatever the Lord would have me do. By God's grace, He's changed me and molded me tremendously in this regard, and I now have no qualms stepping up and taking charge as I ought to. Still, there are many ways I must still be molded. This especially holds true in marriage. I'm not the type of person who will instinctively want to take charge of something; I'd rather be someone's right hand man, the guy in the background doing the dirty work, making sure things get done. Yet in regards to marrage, there is no doubt in my mind that I would lead. I would have to; if I forget that, all I have to do is look at Christ. His leading, however, is not what we often think of it as being. He does not, as many husbands often do, simply claim to "lead by example." That's a phrase that's often used as an excuse. Christ led by service. He serves His bride. He laid down His life for her, He sanctifies her, He cleanses her, He cherishes and nourishes her! First and foremost, He serves His bride!



Being at Boyce College, I'll often hear about how women are there to support their husbands in their ministry. True. Yet, I would ask this: who did Christ minister to? His bride. We as Christian men so often speak of ministry, of a calling to ministry, of leading and loving properly. Unfortunately, we get our priorities wrong. We think that our ministries come first; hardly! There may come times when we are not in the pulpit, but there will never be a time, so long as our brides live, that we will not be husbands! We are in a covenant relationship with our brides, and such a covenant is sacred to the Lord. Look at what it signifies! It points to the Cross! It points to the redemption of Christ's bride! It points to the glorious sanctification of His beloved! Do not forget that!



Yet we as Christian men do. We neglect the bride of our youth. We neglect the covenant we have before the Lord, and we make a mockery of the cross of Christ. We say we neglect our wives for the sake of providing for them and for our children; what a horrible lie! We are forgetting, we are turning away from the glorious truth!



Often men will blame women. We'll joke around and say utterly moronic things like, "I want a quiet girl, 'cause those are the ones that are easier to get to submit," or, "Yeah, so-and-so really tamed that one, didn't he? I never thought anyone would get her to submit!" What idiots we are to think that way. Submission as laid out in scripture is not something that is meant to be difficult! It is an act of love, one of joy and peace! As the Church submits to Christ, so wives are to submit to their husbands. Why is this joyful and peaceful? Because their husbands are to serve them as Christ serves His bride! They are to submit not out of frustration or fear, but out of joyful love, knowing that her husband is there to serve her and cherish her and nourish her. It is he who is to her a type of Christ, a type of savior, one in whom she places all trust and love. I told Andrew that I realized that it is not the weak girls who submit best, but the strong ones. It is they who realize the truth of the gospel, they who embrace their God-given roles, they who are better able to savor Christ as He was meant to be savored as they live out their marriages.



*Sigh*...I told him that that desire for my bride is utterly and clearly from the Lord, because the truth of the gospel in regard to marriage is not something that I've seen a lot of, nor heard much of. When marriage is preached on, it is often diluted. I never got excited about marriage when I was younger; I now see that there was a reason for that. Am I bitter toward my examples? No...hardly. Am I saddened? Yes, extremely so! Saddened to the point of despair? Not a despair beyond all hope. A despair in my weakness, a despair in my own flesh, but a despair that drives me toward Christ, toward joy and hope.



I now see marriage as far more beautiful and glorious than ever before. I can only rejoice as I ponder how much more beautiful and glorious it will continue to become in my sight. I told Andrew it burns in me; it will only continue to burn more fiercely still.

posted by Bolo | 11:57 PM
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