Permanent Love

Marriage is intended by God to last till death do us part. The unfortunate situation is that couples have a hard time lasting that long. Husband give up fighting for their wives, and wives no longer feel desired. They both fall out of love and head for the divorce court. That certainly is a problem in the world. It also a problem in the church. According to Christian pollster George Barna, self described, "born again" Christians have a higher divorce rate than non-believers. Those who call themselves fundamentalist have the highest divorce rate of all. This is shocking. This is a total failure of our mandate to love our wives as Christ loved the church.

So far, over the past few weeks, we've talked about three ways that a man should love his wife as Christ loved the church. Christ's love is sacrificial, it is purifying, and it is caring. Today we will look at one more truth - that Christ's love is permanent. A husband's love for his wife must also be permanent. Christ will never stop loving His bride, the church. Neither should a husband ever stop loving his wife. He must have a love for her that doesn't quit - that will fight for her with every last drop of blood to protect the relationship.

We can see the permanence of the relationship when we look at Ephesians 5;30, which talks about the church being the body of Christ. It says, "For we are members of His body, of His flesh, of His bones." No one would cut off part of his body. Yet, according to Genesis 2:24, which is quoted in Ephesians 5:31, we see that the husband and wife are also joined itogether by marriage into one body. It says, "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh."

Remember, we have mentioned several times about how Christ uses our marriage relationship as an illustration of His relationship to the church. Ephesians 5:32 says, "This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church." Yes, it is a great mystery that we are considered Christ's body, but what a great illustration. Because in the marriage relationship, the husband and wife are joined together so tightly as to "become one flesh."

I like the way the Old King James Version translates this. It says that a man shall "cleave" unto his wife. That's a little more graphic in that it gives us the idea of peanut butter cleaving to our palate when we eat a PBJ sandwich. The word means to glue. A husband is glued to his wife - joined so tightly to her that they become one flesh never to be separated in this life. After all, we could no more be separated from Christ as part of His church than could someone tear off His arm or leg. How ridiculous! Or rip out His heart. We are one flesh, after all. God likewise intends marriage to be that permanent. And His standards do not change.

We can not be separated from Christ. That is what this passages teaches. As believers we are so connected to Him as to be considered part of His body. Our doctrine of Eternal Security flows out of this truth. Since we are talking about marriage, we don't have time to build a case for this doctrine. But marriages that end in divorce totally destroy the picture. For a man to divorce his wife is to say that Christ's bride can be torn away from His embrace. It is to say that His heart could be ripped from His body. Would the all-powerful Christ let that happen? Would He not fight to protect His bride? Would He not fight to keep His body from being torn asunder? Of course He would. And so should every husband fight to preserve his marriage.