The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God Quotes

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While your character flaws may have created mild problems for other people, they will create major problems for your spouse and your marriage.

The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God

The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.

The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God

To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from preten...

The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God

Friends become wiser together through a healthy clash of viewpoints.

The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God

A common vision can unite people of very different temperaments.

The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God

There is a third quality to friendship, and it is not as easy to put into a single word. The right word, literally, is "sympathy" - sym-pathos, common passion. This means that friendships are discovered more than they are created at will.

The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God

Like a surgeon, friends cut you in order to heal you.

The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God

[Spiritual friendship] is eagerly helping one another know, serve, love, and resemble God in deeper and deeper ways.

The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God

Love without truth is sentimentality; it supports and affirms us but keeps us in denial about our flaws. Truth without love is harshness; it gives us information but in such a way that we cannot really hear it. God's saving love in Christ, however, i...

The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God

...Singles, too, must see the penultimate status of marriage. If single Christians don't develop a deeply fulfilling love relationship with Jesus, they will put too much pressure on their DREAM of marriage, and that will create pathology in their liv...

The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God

When you feel great delight in someone, meeting their needs and getting their gratitude and affection in return is extremely rewarding to your ego. At those times you may be acting more out of the desire to get that love and satisfaction yourself, ra...

The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God

Within this Christian vision for marriage, here's what it means to fall in love. It is to look at another person and get a glimpse of the person God is creating, and to say, "I see who God is making you, and it excites me! I want to be part of that. ...

The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God

What keeps the marriage going is your commitment to your spouse's holiness.

The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God

You can only afford to be generous if you actually have some money in the bank to give. In the same way, if your only source of love and meaning is your spouse, then anytime he or she fails you, it will not just cause grief but a psychological catacl...

The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God

...We must say to ourselves something like this: 'Well, when Jesus looked down from the cross, he didn't think "I am giving myself to you because you are so attractive to me." No, he was in agony, and he looked down at us - denying him, abandoning hi...

The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God

In Ephesians 5, Paul shows us that even on earth Jesus did not use his power to oppress us but sacrificed everything to bring us into union with him. And this takes us beyond the philosophical to the personal and the practical. If God had the gospel ...

The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God

Real love, the Bible says, instinctively desires permanence.

The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God

This principle - that your spouse should be capable of becoming your best friend - is a game changer when you address the question of compatibility in a prospective spouse. If you think of marriage largely in terms of erotic love, then compatibility ...

The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God