There are many different ways different people view marriage.
- Many people in our culture see marriage as irrelevant. In 1970, 69 percent of twenty-five-year-old men and 85 percent of thirty-year-old men in America were married. In 2000, only 33 percent of 25-year-olds and 58 percent of 30s were. And the data says this trend is not slowing.
- Many people see marriage as a means of personal fulfillment. They believe marriage exists primarily for their happiness. Some single people might feel incomplete and unfulfilled, and think marriage will fill the hole they have in their heart. Married people realize it doesn’t completely fill that hole, and they get disillusioned with marriage because it doesn’t make them happy all the time.
- Some people see marriage mostly as a political issue. They say we should make more laws to defend traditional marriage, or they say we should get the government completely out of marriage, and let everyone decide for themselves what marriage should look like.
- Some people see marriage as a means of producing kids. Nobody goes into marriage for that reason, but many marriages dissolve after the kids all leave the nest. They send off their last kid to college, and they look at each other, and say, “Who are you again?”
In Sunday’s passage, Jesus called us to see marriage not as a political issue or a fulfillment issue, but as a deeply theological issue. A way for us to the unending love of God for his people through our unending love for each other. He confronted the tendency many people have to look for reasons to give up on marriage, and called us to look for reasons to sustain it.
In this video, John Piper, Tim Keller, and Don Carson (who have a combined 116 years of marriage) reflect on what they’ve learned from God’s Word and their experience about sustaining a loving marriage.
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/24636925[/vimeo]