This month love is exalted and commercialized with the approach of Valentines Day. I will be posting a daily quote or two about love. The greatest Love being God Himself and in reference to the holy institution of marriage that He ordained.
Recently one of our Elders once stated that marriage and children are the two things that the Lord uses to sanctify us. Marriage allows us the opportunity to put aside our own selfishness in order to be a blessing to our spouse. Marriage is a picture of Christ and His Bride. Christ laid down his life for the Church and Christ is the head of the Church to whom she submits. My husband and I are newly discovering how this beautiful representation of marriage applies to our own marriage.
Marriage is often times not easy and when you do things your own way, it can be downright hellish, but when we follow God's ways it can be heavenly. We see the result of following our own ways by the thousands of broken marriages all around us. How sad this is, when by simply following God's pattern our marriages can be filled with joy and be an example to our children and a blessing to those around us.
Quotes by R.C. Sproul:
To submit to anyone less than Christ is difficult in a marriage. Yet it is Christ who commands women to be submissive to their sinful, fallible husbands. In this sense Christ is the silent partner of the marriage. It is hard for a wife to submit when she disagrees with her husband. But when she knows her submission is an act of obedience to Christ and honors Christ, it is much less difficult.
When the New Testament speaks of the church's glory, it is speaking of its dignity. By analogy, the husband is called to give himself to the purpose of establishing his wife in the fullness of dignity. When he uses his authority to destroy his wife's dignity, he becomes the direct antithesis of Christ. He mirrors not Christ but the Antichrist.
