We live in a culture comprising diverse forms and expressions, values and beliefs. It is under regular change through the speed global communication, digitisation and much more but not forgetting the media’s role, including social media and the so called “influencers” and also the effects of AI. Amongst it all there seems to be a growth of “self-centredness”. For us, the word of God is unchanging, and we have His manual of Life, the Holy Bible, and our “influencer” is Christ, and our “centredness” is on Christ.
Seeking Christ-centred lives for all in the church can be a tough and narrow path, particularly where a culture rejoices in personal fulfilment and thinking of self and not of others. Christ-centred marriages/families can face the same challenges. Within marriage, husbands and wives must seek the better way, the higher path which includes covenant faithfulness.
Scripture is sufficient for us to build our lives and marriages/families that glorify God. Marriage is not a private matter that is built on “feelings” but a covenant, not a contract, designed by God and crafted to include agape love, holiness, and an enduring lifetime covenant made before and including God.
Everyone married or planning to marry seeks a lasting marriage, not one that lasts only a year or two, a marriage that thrives through hard times, not merely surviving. As with seeking a Christ-centred life, a Christ-centred marriage is shaped by grace, forgiveness, sacrifice but where husband and wife are together in pursuit of drawing closer to God. As Jesus answered the teachers of the law, “The most important one says: ‘People of Israel, you have only one Lord and God. You must love him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.’ The second most important commandment says: ‘Love others as much as you love yourself.’ No other commandment is more important than these.” Mark 12:29-31 [CEV]
In Ephesians 5:32, the passage shows that the design of marriage is to reflect the relationship between Christ and His church, which surpasses the role or relationship of many marriages.
Christ at the centre of lives, marriages, families provides a foundation that withstands life’s storms and tempests.
Within a Christ-centred marriage, two lives must grow together, influenced by a shared love of God and guided by grace, sacrifice, forgiveness, kindness, patience, and the absence of self-seeking. In marriage, we should see the outworking of 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, Philippians 2:3-4 and Ecclesiastes 4:9-12.
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