Thoughts on Marriage as Ministry

Today, I was having coffee with a friend of mine, and she asked me why anyone would want to get married when everyone secretly knows that marriage is one of the hardest and most self-sacrificing commitments you will ever make in your life? And she also wanted to know why people make this commitment knowing that the person they marry is flawed and therefore unable to satisfy them completely. She also added that if they do not know that their significant other is flawed before marriage then they are kidding themselves. And if I am being honest with myself, and the broken world around me, then her question is a really good one.

A Christian woman told my friend that she was right -- marriage is very, very hard and constantly a reminder to you of how flawed you truly are. But, this woman had learned, through her marriage, that self-sacrificing love is actually the most fulfilling, purposeful and life-giving love anyone can ever experience. I would have to agree with this anonymous woman and her thoughts, on marriage. They excite me!

You see, my girlfriends questions did not go far enough. They were honest questions, and I appreciate that, but the question that she should be asking and the one that I think she is asking herself deep down is: What is God's purpose for marriage?

I am fairly confident that the purpose of marriage is to lead us into a greater understand of who Jesus Christ is and what he has done for us by giving his life on the cross. Within marriage we are also going to learn to need Jesus more than anyone else as our ultimate source of strength, hope and love. We are going to have to learn how to take up our cross and follow him into a life of giving to another person, above ourselves. This is why we get married; to learn to love another above ourself.

One can only achieve this when the gospel of Jesus Christ becomes real in our lives, and it must become realized through marriage, as well. Is this not what Christians want? Marriage is such a living, breathing picture of who Christ is and what he has done for us. Marriage, through Christ, becomes more purposeful and beautiful because it is just one more chance to learn how to live like Jesus and proclaim his message to a lost world through our unconditional love and commitment to one another above ourself. I am no fool, marriage will be hard – it will demand a lot, a cross even, but it excites me that Jesus Christ has called me to so great a ministry of love to another and ultimately to the world in which we live.

Marriage is a ministry that proclaims the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world.