Yesterday, I attended my second wedding in three months! Our niece got married in April and her brother got married in June. Needless to say, I have never really been involved in the planning, preparation, and set-up/break-down of a wedding until this spring. I’ve learned a lot and I now realize that weddings of any size are a production! And they are increasingly expensive, but that’s another article. As I sat in the audience yesterday, I wasn’t on the “front row,” but I was close the front. As the Minister was stating the vows and “officiating,” I observed him stating at the end of a statement as to he seemed to be seeking a non-verbal response from both the bride & groom. I read his lips and he said, “Do you understand, no turning back now?!” I thought, “Wow, he’s making sure those kids really understand commitment right here in this moment!” As I reflected on that moment, as the ceremony concluded, I couldn’t help but think about that statement “No turning back now.”
We all understand commitment and the bond of trust. We all desire that from our physicians, our government, our attorney, our friends, our neighbors, and most definitely from our spouse (or the one who is about to be our spouse). Permanency is important. We could cite statistics upon statistics regarding the metrics of marriage (divorce rate, marriage rate, longevity rate) all in an effort to show that in our country marriage is simply not the priority it once was. A Bible class teacher I once studied under made the statement that the divorce rate is soon to be overtaken by the “cohabitation rate.” Meaning, more and more people are seeking to “live together” versus marrying than ever before.
Unfortunately in our society, marriage is no longer seen as something that is a bond that should not be broken. It is simply seen as another relationship our society and legal system says that people can “dissolve” their promise when they become tired of being joined or committed. The way laws are written and the way our citizenry views people seeking not to honor their marriage commitment, no longer holds those in marriage accountable. So, much can be said about marriage. We should never enter a conversation about marriage with a flippant attitude. The true understanding of who can be married and what Scripture says requires so much discussion because of the weight of the importance of honoring a Godly marriage. But for the purpose of this piece, let us understand that marriage is permanent– for life, till death. Romans 7:1-4 says, Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.
As the marriage ceremony ended yesterday, we attended the reception, and then began to join the family in cleaning up the church the wedding was held in and the venue for the wedding reception, I couldn’t help but think about the work that went in to the weddings of our niece and nephew this spring. But, more importantly, I couldn’t stop thinking about the expectation God has for all of us who choose to marry…”Til death do us part, no turning back now.” We should mediate on these words, but more importantly, we should display them in our lives!
