Should I Marry? Part 9

Now, in a simple sense, the wife's body is her own as God has given it to her. In a spiritual sense, it is the Lord's according to Romans 12:1, "Present your body [to the Lord] as a living sacrifice. . .," but in the marital sense, the body belongs to her husband. And the same is true of the man. This is God’s beautiful way to express the sharing of marriage.

Remember also the story of Hosea and Gomer? God told Hosea to marry a girl who would later turn out to be a prostitute (Hos. 1:2). He told her at the very beginning how he felt toward her. Here is what he said: Then I said to her, “You shall stay with me for many days. You shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man; so will I also be toward you” (Hos. 3:3).

In other words, “You're going to be around for a long time, babe. You do not need to play the harlot. No more do you need to wander in sin. You shall not be for another man." Then he adds, "So will I also be for you." You will be for me and I will be for you...That's marriage. The physical - I am for you and you are for me. If you need me, then I'm yours. And if I need you, then you are mine. This is God’s design.

Therefore, Paul is teaching the Corinthians not to break up their marriages because they became Christians. There isn't any high level sanctity to celibacy. It's good to be single, but listen; it's great to be married, if that's what God's given you. Don't violate that. God has given you the gravy, if you're married. Peter calls it the grace of life (cf. 1 Pet. 3:7). What he means is that marriage is the whip cream on the sundae, it's the gravy, it's the grace of life. Life is great and life is abundant and life abounds for the Christian, but the gravy is to get married. It's exciting.

Marriage, then, is a permanent surrender of everything I am to my partner. I am hers in the absolutely fullest and truest sense.

Now, he goes a step further and he makes an application, verse 5. "Stop depriving one another." Now, here were these married people depriving each other of the physical relationship. “Well, I'm sorry, dear, now that we belong to the Lord, we mustn't do that.” True, but only for a short period of time when you give yourselves over to prayer and seeking the Lord.

Paul says – “Look, there may be times when you agree not to have physical relationships because you want to pray and seek the wisdom and counsel of God. That's the exception.”

End of Part 9