Finding a Good Spouse


Image credit

When I was searching for sermon illustrations on marriage, I saw in one of my books that the entry on “marriage” was sandwiched between “mark of the beast” and “martyrdom.” 

Now that’s very interesting! In case you thought you made a mistake and you married the wrong person or, worse, the Antichrist, remember what Socrates the philosopher said, “By all means marry. If you get a good wife, you will become very happy; if you get a bad one, you will become a philosopher—and that is also good.” 
Image credit

Seriously, here’s what God has to say about finding a life partner: “He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord.” (Proverbs 18:22) [1] If you think that it only talks about finding a wife and not a husband, The Message version goes like this, “Find a good spouse, you find a good life—and even more: the favor of God!” 

Getting married is a good thing and a favor from the Lord. The Hebrew word for “favor” means “acceptance, goodwill, or approval.” [2] For our single people, please don’t think that God did not give you His favor. That’s not the intent of the verse. When he talked about singleness, marriage and remarriage, the apostle Paul declared,
I wish that all were as I myself am. [As far as Bible scholars are concerned, Paul was either a widow or he has never married.] But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another. (1 Corinthians 7:7. Emphasis added.)
Singleness and marriage are both a “gift from God”. But they are different gifts.

The point of Proverbs 18:22 is, “The Lord sanctions marriage for He states that finding a wife is a good thing and that God is pleased with marriage” (emphasis added). [3] In his “Be Skillful,” Dr. Warren Wiersbe wrote,
Blessed is that marriage in which the husband acknowledges God’s goodness to him in giving him his wife! When a husband takes her for granted, he grieves both her and the Lord. He should love her and be loyal to her all the days of his life. [4]
The question now is, do we see our marriage as an expression of God’s favor upon us? Do we acknowledge that His blessings upon our marriage spell the difference between a successful marriage and a failed one? 
Image credit

As Psalm 127:1 declared, “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” 

[1] All Bible verses are from the English Standard Version, unless otherwise noted.

[2] Sid S. Buzzel, “Proverbs” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary, Old Testament, Eds. John F. Walvoord, Roy B. Zuck and Dallas Theological Seminary (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1983, 1985), 923.

[3] Ibid, 945.

[4] Warren Wiersbe, Be Skillful (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1995), 98-99.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

God Knows Judas Not Pay

In the National Geographic Magazine (May 2006 issue), in its cover story, The Judas Gospel , Professor Eliane Pagels of Princeton University claimed that the so-called gospel of Judas “ changes the history of early Christianity. ” Even UP Professor Randy David took notice of the Judas Gospel: “Strictly from a sociological standpoint, I think the discovery of the Gospel of Judas makes Christianity a far more interesting religion than what centuries of metaphysical theology has made of it.” (A Gospel for the Postmodern, Phil. Daily Inquirer, April 16, 2006) That’s why I spoke in our Young Pro Fellowship a few days ago on God Knows Judas Not Pay (A Biblical Response on the Judas Gospel). I believe opportunities like this hype on the Judas Gospel or the Da Vinci Code opens a door for us to share the true Gospel. For those who did not attend last Thursday, let me share briefly why we reject the Judas gospel. I came up with the acronym J-U-D-A-S. J udas was portrayed as a traitor in the Bibl
Read more

“Ubus-ubos Biyaya, Bukas Nakatunganga”

Image
That’s what my mother always told us when we were still kids. (Translation: “You spend everything today, you will have nothing tomorrow.” ) Image source: So, What's New ? Dionie did just that. Last April 2008, he won PHP14,125,032 in the Lotto 6/42 draw. Excitedly, he “lived the life of a millionaire, something he had been longing to experience. He lived in a P4-million house in a posh subdivision, drove around in a sports utility vehicle [which he bought the very same day he claimed his prize] , and gave goodwill money, ranging P1,000 to P 850,000, to relatives and friends. He also gambled daily, womanized, and went on regular drinking sprees.” (Source: Manila Bulletin ) He estimated that he squandered a minimum of P100,000 almost every day. He also lent money even to people he did not really know. “I just gave them and told them not to pay me back.” (Ibid) His bank had to issue him a special card so he can withdraw huge amounts of money quickly from the automated teller m
Read more

“Don’t drink the Kool-Aid!”

Image
Forty years ago, this expression became known as a description of blind obedience.   Source: Los Angeles Times On November 18, 1978, members of Peoples Temple, a cult group in Guyana, drank Kool-Aid drink laced with cyanide to commit a mass suicide “at the behest of their charismatic but paranoid leader, Jim Jones”. [1] According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica , “The death toll exceeded 900, including some 300 age 17 and under, making the incident one of the largest mass deaths in American history. ”  [2]  What made those people submit to such atrocity? According to Stella Morabito, a senior contributor to The Federalist online magazine, Peoples Temple is “Exhibit A… [of]  the dangers of the cult mindset or how vulnerable all people are to cult tactics.”  [3] She pointed out that, Coercive persuasion has immense power to shape and twist the human mind.  …[Jones’] utopian preaching of a humane world in which all lived happily in harmony resonated with the
Read more