The Marital Bond

Living in Covenant

A Heart-felt Covenant

Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) 

Jesus Teaches Us to Love One Another

Mark 10:2-9 New International Version

2 Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”
3 “What did Moses command you?” he replied.
4 They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.”
5 “It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied. 6 “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’[a] 7 ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,[b] 8 and the two will become one flesh.’[c] So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

For Reflection

A previously widowed or divorced woman in those days found it challenging to survive. Because men were discarding their legal wives for any displeasure with them, Mosaic law made it more difficult by requiring a trial and legal separation papers. Jesus comments that marriage is more than a legal contract. Marriage is a covenant of union and the basis of family life.


Today, marriage is still a civil contract. But, it is also a spiritual covenant.  Same-sex marriages are probably entered into for the same reasons as heterosexual marriages, love or convenience. They are also plagued by the vagaries of all marriages.  The will of God is that we love each other, even those with whom we disagree. If our words or deeds cause others to suffer, then we are not behaving righteously. Judgment is God's not ours. Our task is to heal.

Pray

Pray often and long so that you remember your Christian mission is to heal.

Note: Dyed silk banner by students at the Presbyterian Association of Musicians, Montreat, NC, 2019
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