Over these last months the attack on the Christian Church and the inspiration and authority of the Bible has not abated, despite the pandemic and the continuing acts of terrorism around the world.

Some in the Church believe that we have brought this upon ourselves when scripture has been made culturally understandable to the society of today; when this is done sometimes the biblical message is sifted by worldly experience or knowledge until it fits with that experience and knowledge.

This has happened in the context of marriage and family where the scriptural purpose and values of marriage and family are almost completely opposed to the world view. Regrettably, there are some in the Christian Church who believe their marriage, their family and indeed their life are all good, but is their measure against the world’s scale and not God’s scale. Within the world’s scale is “self-actualisation’. In Abraham Maslow’s [1908-70] ‘hierarchy of needs’ it is the highest level of psychological development, where personal potential is fully realized after basic bodily and ego needs have been fulfilled. This whole process is about SELF, without any recognition of our creator God (or other people, created by Him), in our lives.

Marriage starts with covenant promises/commitments and has the potential to flow through, from that foundation to children of that union. (Also flowing through to others in our families and community.) We have the command to “love” and a key part of that is wanting the very best for others rather than looking to SELF. Through the world’s teachings many have lost this understanding of love even in marriage.

The pandemic has brought to light cracks in a number of marriages with increasing domestic violence, whether between spouses or parent and child, in all parts of society. Then within this scene of domestic violence is coercive behaviour and language, something that is not readily detected in the public forum as there are no physical bruises showing. The recipient of such behaviour can be deeply scarred – hence there are ‘Government Enquiries’ being undertaken in this nation and elsewhere on how to identify and correctly deal with such situations.

Within the Church we boldly need to continue to teach, equip and correct using all scripture so that marriages in the Church and also the Church community glorify God 24/7 so impacting the communities around us.

The sufficiency of scripture is a basic in our Christian faith – the Bible gives us a clear indication of God’s plan to restore the broken relationship between Himself and us. This being possible through Jesus Christ, His Son, our Saviour through the gift of faith.

We see from St Paul’s inspired word of instruction to Timothy [2 Timothy 3:16-17] that the God breathed words of scripture are all that are required to equip the man of God for a life of faith and service. We also see David rejoicing in God’s word, declaring it to be perfect, trustworthy, enlightening …and righteous altogether. [Psalm 19:7-14]