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6 January 2008
Word on the Web
Proverbs 2: 16-22
It will save you from the unfaithful wife, who tries to lead you into adultery with pleasing words.
She leaves the husband she married when she was young. She ignores the promise she made before God.
Her house is on the way to death; those who took that path are now all dead.
No one who goes to her comes back or walks the path of life again.
But wisdom will help you be good and do what is right.
Those who are honest will live in the land, and those who are innocent will remain in it.
But the wicked will be removed from the land, and the unfaithful will be thrown out of it.
We've already been warned this week about the dangers of rejecting God's wisdom and of getting in with the wrong crowd. Now it is the turn of faithlessness in marriage.
Jesus took this much further - he called looking lustfully "committing adultery in one's heart" (Matthew 5:28).
This passage speaks particularly about the importance of marriage vows - they are solemn promises made before God; breaking them (or participating in another breaking them) is faithlessness to God as well as to the spouse. Such breaches have devastating consequences for your spiritual life.
When I married, I promised my wife that, forsaking all others, I would be faithful to her as long as we both live. This promise was unconditional. Since then, I have set my mind not to think about anyone else in that way.
I am appalled by how many people who ought to know better play with fire. **** and innuendo, "harmless" flirting, joining in with the boys' wandering eyes as one of the lads - don't even think about it. If you want more extensive reasons why not, read on to Proverbs chapters 5 to 7.
Many in our society back away from marriage vows - whether through lack of commitment, awareness of their own frailty, rebelliousness or lack of understanding of the value of marriage - and choose to live instead in cheap imitations. In Britain, nearly half of all children are born outside marriage, and we are reaping the consequences - in crime, in unhappiness, and in people who have never learned how to develop long-term relationships. If you are married, contemplating marriage, or in a vaguely similar relationship, why not read through the marriage vows and take time to think through what they mean to you.
Lord God, who created the institution of marriage as a model for us to follow for our benefit, give us the grace to be as faithful in all our relationships as the promises in the marriage vows to love and to cherish for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health. Amen
Written by James Archer
Word on the Web
Proverbs 2: 16-22
It will save you from the unfaithful wife, who tries to lead you into adultery with pleasing words.
She leaves the husband she married when she was young. She ignores the promise she made before God.
Her house is on the way to death; those who took that path are now all dead.
No one who goes to her comes back or walks the path of life again.
But wisdom will help you be good and do what is right.
Those who are honest will live in the land, and those who are innocent will remain in it.
But the wicked will be removed from the land, and the unfaithful will be thrown out of it.
We've already been warned this week about the dangers of rejecting God's wisdom and of getting in with the wrong crowd. Now it is the turn of faithlessness in marriage.
Jesus took this much further - he called looking lustfully "committing adultery in one's heart" (Matthew 5:28).
This passage speaks particularly about the importance of marriage vows - they are solemn promises made before God; breaking them (or participating in another breaking them) is faithlessness to God as well as to the spouse. Such breaches have devastating consequences for your spiritual life.
When I married, I promised my wife that, forsaking all others, I would be faithful to her as long as we both live. This promise was unconditional. Since then, I have set my mind not to think about anyone else in that way.
I am appalled by how many people who ought to know better play with fire. **** and innuendo, "harmless" flirting, joining in with the boys' wandering eyes as one of the lads - don't even think about it. If you want more extensive reasons why not, read on to Proverbs chapters 5 to 7.
Many in our society back away from marriage vows - whether through lack of commitment, awareness of their own frailty, rebelliousness or lack of understanding of the value of marriage - and choose to live instead in cheap imitations. In Britain, nearly half of all children are born outside marriage, and we are reaping the consequences - in crime, in unhappiness, and in people who have never learned how to develop long-term relationships. If you are married, contemplating marriage, or in a vaguely similar relationship, why not read through the marriage vows and take time to think through what they mean to you.
Lord God, who created the institution of marriage as a model for us to follow for our benefit, give us the grace to be as faithful in all our relationships as the promises in the marriage vows to love and to cherish for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health. Amen
Written by James Archer
