With our Adult SS starting a SS class on Piper’s book, Don’t Waste Your Life, I have been thinking a lot about this theme and thought for today’s Marriage Monday post, I would say something about how this would apply to marriage.
There are countless couples who effectively waste their marriages. They forget the purpose for which God has brought them together or they minimize that purpose to things that are less than ultimate. Maybe they think that God has brought them together simply to procreate and raise children. While this might be something entrusted by God to married couples, it doesn’t point to ultimate reality.
When God created marriage in Genesis 2, there was something He was addressing in man and that was a need for companionship. Marriage is a unique relationship. It isn’t merely just having a life partner to keep you from being lonely. But Scripture also highlights marriage as being a covenant. Marriage is almost a new creation in which 2 individuals are formed into 1 unit. In marriage, God has brought you together with your spouse so that His glory can more effectively be displayed to the world than you could accomplish on your own. At the core of a marriage, then, is this “oneness” that exists. No longer are 2 individuals striving for their space or seeking to serve self. In marriage, God has brought those 2 individuals together as one. In marriage you die to self and come together to something greater.
We forfeit this idea, then, when we devote marriage to my time and doing what I need to do. When we have a selfish focus like this, we might be tottering on the brink of wasting our marriages. Therefore, before you waste it, spend time reviewing your marriage and its ULTIMATE purpose. God has brought you together with a spouse so that His glory is seen through you. Glorify and enjoy God, then, together…forever.