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The C ovenant of Marriage
image: mafleen~Gensis 1:26-28; 2:18-25~
“Whether intended or not, Hollywood has a formula for love, sex, and lasting
relationships.”
1. Find the right person. Hollywood’s Formula
1. Find the right person. Hollywood’s Formula
2. Fall in love.
1. Find the right person. Hollywood’s Formula
2. Fall in love.3. Fix your hopes and
dreams on this person for your future fulfill-ment.
1. Find the right person. Hollywood’s Formula
2. Fall in love.3. Fix your hopes and
dreams on this person for your future fulfill-ment.
4. If failure occurs, repeat steps 1, 2, & 3.
“It may sound harsh and burst a few romantic bubbles, but
this Hollywood four-step formula is what most of us now unconsciously believe
about how relationships work…. I find the Hollywood
formula just as prevalent among Christians as among
non-Christians. And the results are equally
disastrous.”
? Is it possible that we have unconsciously bought into
the Hollywood formula about how relationships work and what relationships are for?
Marriage is a covenantal relationship established by God in which
he joins together a man and a woman into a one flesh union where the
husband and wife can also be father and mother to any children their one
flesh union produces.
What is marriage acc. to Jesus?
What is the covenant of
marriage ?
”~ Jesus of Nazareth in the Gospel of Matthew, 19:4“…from the beginning….
“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over
the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over
every other creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them…. ~ Genesis 1:26-28
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth
and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that
moves on the earth.”
~ Genesis 1:26-28
Make love. Make babies.
Raise children.
The Mandate
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone;
I will make him a helper fit for him.…”
~ Genesis 2:18-25
Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man
to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every
beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him….
~ Genesis 2:18-25
So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one
of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had
taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.
~ Genesis 2:18-25
Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman,
because she was taken out of Man.”
~ Genesis 2:18-25
Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they
shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
~ Genesis 2:18-25
Leaving1 “Therefore a man
shall leave his father and his mother…”
2Cleaving
“…and hold fast to his wife…”
“…the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth…she is your
companion and your wife by covenant. Did not he make
them one…? ~ Malachi 2:14-15
“…the adulteress…who forsakes the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made
before God.”~ Proverbs 2:16-17, NIV
Covenant Promises
“…those who are in love have a natural inclination to bind
themselves by promises. Love songs all over the world are
full of vows of eternal constancy. The Christian law
is not forcing upon the passion of love something
that is foreign to that passion's own nature; it is
demanding that lovers should take seriously something that
their passion itself impels them to do.
~ CS Lewis, Oxford Scholar Mere Christianity
~ CS Lewis, Oxford Scholar Mere Christianity
“And of course, the promise, made when I am in love and because I am in love, to be
true to the beloved as long as I live, commits me to being true even if I cease to be in
love. A promise must be about things that I can do, about
actions: no one can promise to go on feeling in a certain
way. He might as well promise never to have a headache or
always to feel hungry.”
“Wedding vows are not a declaration of present love but a mutually binding promise of future love. A wedding should not be primarily a celebration of how loving you feel now—that can safely be assumed. Rather, in a wedding you stand up before God, your family, and all the main institutions of society, and you promise to be loving, faithful, and true to the other person in the future, regardless of undulating internal feelings or external circumstances.”
~ Tim Keller, The Meaning of Marriage
“What therefore God has joined together,
let no man separate.”
~ Jesus of Nazareth in The Gospel of Matthew, 19:6
“Ulysses and the Sirens” by John William Waterhouse
“What can keep marriages together during the rough
patches? The vows. A public oath, made to the world, keeps you ‘tied to the mast’ until your mind clears and you begin to understand things better. It
keeps you in the relationship when your feelings flag, and flag they will. By contrast, consumer
relationships cannot possibly endure these inevitable tests of
life, because neither party is ‘tied to the mast.’”
~ Tim Keller, Pastor Redeemer NYC The Meaning of Marriage
3Weaving
“…and the two shall become one flesh.”
“Eat, friends, drink, and be
drunk with love.” ~ The Song of Solomon, 5:1
“Don’t you know that when you sleep with someone, your body makes a promise whether you do or not!”
Marriage is a sacred bond between a man and a woman
instituted by God and entered into before God.
What is the Covenant of Marriage?
Marriage is a sacred bond that involves
leaving, cleaving, & weaving.
Elevate marriage to its rightful place as a sacred bond…
…of leaving, cleaving, & weavingimage: Mike_tn
image credit: mafleen https://www.flickr.com/photos/beginasyouare/9525499889/https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/
flickr images courtesy of:
image credit: Mark_tnhttps://www.flickr.com/photos/morrowless/3003380784/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/
image credit: Erinhttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_William_Waterhouse_-_Ulysses_and_the_Sirens_(1891).jpg
other images:
Theen Moy: https://www.flickr.com/photos/theenmoy/14138348137
contemplative imagining: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomas-merton/8686694887/
flickr images courtesy of:
other images:thinkstock: tem number:86483395
other info:Madeline Arakawa Gins, Visionary Architect, Is Dead at 72 - http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/13/arts/design/madeline-arakawa-gins-visionary-architect-dies-at-72.html
Christopher Brown: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7853490@N07/3531948937/
Will Foster: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mazakar/2777932633/
Fruity Monkey: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gilesrcook/5346737067 Used by permission: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
flik: http://www.flickr.com/photos/flik/2533996623
Theen Moy: https://www.flickr.com/photos/theenmoy/14138348137
contemplative imagining: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomas-merton/8686694887/
flickr images courtesy of:
other images:thinkstock: tem number:86483395
other info:Madeline Arakawa Gins, Visionary Architect, Is Dead at 72 - http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/13/arts/design/madeline-arakawa-gins-visionary-architect-dies-at-72.html
Christopher Brown: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7853490@N07/3531948937/
Will Foster: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mazakar/2777932633/