"You shall not commit adultery" (Exodus 20:14).
IDEA: Christian marriage is based on a covenant, not a contract.
PURPOSE: To help listeners appreciate the difference a covenant should make.
What difference should it make when two Christians marry?
Is the marriage any different from a non-Christian marriage?
I. Here are five marks of comparison between God’s covenant with His people and the covenant of marriage (taken from G. R. Dunstan, To Have and to Hold, p. 75).
Both are an initiative of love inviting a response and creating a relationship.
As God’s covenant of grace is made sure by oath, so the essence of the marriage covenant is a vow that guards the relationship.
Both are obligations based on faithfulness.
Both include the promise of blessing to those remaining faithful to their covenant relationship.
Both require sacrifice.
II. The strength of a marriage is based on a promise: God calls that promise a covenant.
In Thornton Wilder’s play, The Skin of our Teeth, there is a quote that reflects what the Bible says about a covenant relationship:
"I didn’t marry you because you were perfect. I didn’t even marry you because I loved you. I married you because you gave me a promise.
“That promise made up for your faults. And the promise I gave you made up for mine. Two imperfect people got married, and it was that promise that made the marriage. And when our children were growing up, it wasn’t that house that protected them; and it wasn’t our love that protected them–it was that promise.” [quoted in Covenant Marriage by Fred Lowery, p. 69).