Staying married for a lifetime is tough for most people. Check the divorce rate in America. Half of all unions end in court. Why? We fixate on the parts of our spouse that irritate us and ignore the parts that are good.
If we’d turn that around and ignore the bad, more of us would stay together. Winteryknight.com came out in October of 2015 revealing that half of those about to get a divorce will regret it within a year. Yourtango.com says it takes that long for our anger to cool and for us to count how much the divorce actually costs us.
We’re not seeing the love that’s still there, and our world blows up in our face because of it.
We do the same in our Christian walk. We squabble over ideological nitpicking that threatens to blow the church apart. We need to find the love that’s still there, and put it ahead of everything else.
Would we threaten to leave the church (or kick someone else out) because of Deuteronomy 14:7?
“Yet of those that chew the cud or have the hoof cloven you shall not eat these: the camel, the hare, and the rock badger, because they chew the cud but do not part the hoof, are unclean for you.”
Of course not. It’s easy to ignore as unimportant. After all, who eats camel?
But what about Leviticus 11:7?
“And the pig, because it parts the hoof and is cloven-footed but does not chew the cud, is unclean to you.”
This is different. It's easy to brush this verse aside, because we’re pork foodies. Yet, this instruction is also in the Word of God. We overlook this verse, because we “know better” now. We now understand that the reason for this verse is we can get trichinosis from pork that’s prepared improperly.
And we serve our Christmas ham to celebrate the birth of Jesus every December 25th.
If our parents have been unfair in our eyes, Exodus 20:12 is harder to ignore.
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.”
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 suggests we must give 100 percent for our marriage with Christ to survive.
“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
Perhaps we should look at Genesis 9:3 all over again.
“Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.”
The whole Bible is ours. God gives us all of it: the camel and the pig; the parents who drive us nuts; and the spouse that never, ever remembers our birthday. The whole Word of God is for inspiration, teaching, and for reproof. It’s not ever, ever reason for divorce.
Let’s work on our marriage. Let’s forget the small stuff. It’s all about the love. Let the hot-button issues cool, and we’ll find Christ’s love is still there, right where it’s been all along.
In Jesus’ own words, all we need to do is love one another.
Copyright © 2016 MyChurchNotes.net
Originally Published 4-4-16 in Relationships