There are many people today who would like to demote marriage by labeling it a human invention. But Scripture tells us marriage was created by God and as such it is a holy institution. In this traditional wedding season, let’s take a moment to look at the components of a stable, healthy marriage.
Imagine your marriage as a three-legged stool, and the three legs are selflessness, forgiveness and communication. Without one of the legs, the stool will fall down. A good marriage needs all three components to be well-balanced and strong.
Maintaining the components of the three-legged stool of marriage is not easy. We will always be competing against our sinful, selfish nature. We will always be seeking God’s strength to forgive. We will often struggle to find balance between our calendars and our marriage. But, if you keep Christ at the center of your marriage and allow Him to give, forgive and communicate through you, yours will be a blessed and healthy marriage.
Prayer: God, show me how I can improve communication in my marriage. God, I need Your help to be the godly spouse I should be. Help me to keep You at the center of my marriage and to be on guard against selfishness, to be quick to forgive, and to be vigilant to communicate. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Excerpted from My Journal, a monthly devotional magazine from Leading The Way with Dr. Michael Youssef. Read more: Nurturing a Healthy and Blessed Marriage
Scriptures for Sermons on Marriage
Browse these popular sections of scripture about marriage and the importance, virtues, and edification of "becoming one flesh."
Wives and Husbands - Ephesians 5:22-33
Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
Principles for Marriage - 1 Corinthians 7:1-5
Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: "It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman." But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
The Way of Love - 1 Corinthians 13
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
15 Sermons on Marriage
Sermons can help us to discern marital problems and scriptural wisdom as it relates to our life. Listen to this collection of sermons on marriage as found on OnePlace.com inspired by biblical wisdom.
1. Marriage as Ministry Power - Rev. Timothy Keller
Marriage, contrary to what a lot of people say, is not something a bunch of people around a cave-fire in the Late Bronze Age suddenly thought up. According to the Scripture, marriage is a divine invention.
In this passage, we’re going to see first that the essence of marriage is a covenant, secondly, that the purpose of marriage is companionship, and lastly, the priority of marriage has to be number one.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on August 18, 1991. Series "Marriage". Scripture: Ephesians 5:22-33. Click Here to listen.
2. A Covenant to Marriage and Family - Jack Graham
Pastor Jack Graham examines the marriage bond as God created it, a holy, heavenly covenant between a man and a woman, and far stronger than any earthly contract. Click HERE to listen.
3. Building A Lasting Marriage - Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer
While the world continues to undermine marriage, Pastor Lutzer asks us, “How can we build an enduring marriage?” What keeps a couple together for decades, surviving war, immigration, deprivation, and material want? Let’s hear about the parents of Pastor Lutzer, as he tells their story of 76 years of marriage in Canada. He lists five biblical principles that kept his parents together through thick and thin. Click HERE to listen.
4. Bricks That Build a Marriage - Chuck Swindoll
Everyone expects the dangers of this world to attack from outside the comforts of home. However, with divorces taking place at alarming rates, attacks from without are being replaced with staggering disintegration from within. Divorce stands as the final ruin of a house that has fallen in on itself. If you or a member of your family hasn’t fallen victim to divorce, it almost certainly has affected a number of your friends and acquaintances. The reality of crumbling marriages in our world should cause God’s people to stand up and take notice. Thankfully, the Bible provides clear direction regarding the proper materials it takes to build a lasting marriage. Click HERE to listen.
5. Marriage Supper of the Lamb - Rev. Timothy Keller
In Ephesians 5, Paul says, “This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.” This verse is teaching us that there are some things we would never know about marriage if we don’t know about how we relate to Christ by faith. Conversely, there are things we would never know about our relationship with Christ if we didn’t know about marriage.
In a sense, one teaches you about the other, and you can’t completely understand one without understanding the other. We’re going to look more closely at what marriage teaches us about our relationship with Jesus and what our relationship with Jesus teaches us about marriage. Click HERE to listen.
6. Mystery in Marriage - Dr. James Dobson
To put new life in your marriage, think like a teenager again! A little romance goes a long way! Click HERE to listen.
7. Those Vows Mean Something - Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer
Many couples have prenuptial agreements to divvy up their possessions should the marriage fail. What hope is there for a lasting marriage? With a vision of purity and honor, God’s Word counters the lies we want to believe about marriage. Pastor Lutzer debunks five prevalent myths promoted in today’s culture—which lead to broken marriages. The Bible tells us how marriages can last, come what may. Click HERE to listen.
8. Marriage as Completion: One Flesh - Rev. Timothy Keller
In the Bible, the word flesh doesn’t simply mean your body. It doesn’t simply mean what the English word flesh means, which always means simply skin, sinew, blood, and guts. Actually, there’s a place in the Bible where God says, “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh…” That doesn’t mean, “I will pour out my Spirit on everybody’s body.” It means, “I’ll pour out my Spirit on all people.” The word flesh means a person. When it says the two will become one flesh, it says you’ll be one person. You’re really no longer the same two people, but you’re a third entity.
How is it that this one-fleshness can be developed? There are three ways it can happen and three reasons it doesn’t happen. If you do these three things properly, it develops deep oneness. If you fail to do them or if you do them wrongly, it creates something different altogether, basically a business partnership. Click HERE to listen.
9. Marriage 101 - Greg Laurie
Marriage is a union of two imperfect people . . . and often that’s the perfect recipe for conflict. Monday on A NEW BEGINNING, Pastor Greg Laurie helps husbands and wives find harmony and happiness through following God’s plan for the home. Click HERE to listen.
10. Rethinking Marriage as a Divine Covenant - Pastor Mike Fabarez
Do love and marriage really "go together like a horse and carriage"? Today on Focal Point, Pastor Mike Fabarez sets some ground rules to give couples a whole new understanding of what it means to commit—in the message, "Rethinking Marriage as a Sacred Covenant." Click HERE to listen.
11. Millionaire Marriages - Adrian Rogers
Marriages didn't evolve. It's not a social convenience. It’s the fundamental plan of God. The first was performed by God, a marriage made in heaven, then marred by hell. Find out how YOU can have a marriage marked by hope, as you were designed for. Jesus can take the water of your disappointment and turn it into the wine of His joy! Click HERE to listen.
12. What Marriage Is and Isn't - Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer
The Supreme Court ruled the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional. There’s no doubt that marriage is under attack. Some question the purpose of marriage at all. Living together is becoming the norm. In this message, we better understand why marriage as an institution is so important. Click HERE to listen.
13. Marriage with Grace and Honor - Dr. James Dobson
Is there tension in your marriage? Does it seem like you and your spouse bicker and argue about everything? This Family Talk broadcast will offer encouragement through Dr. Dobson’s classic interview with the late best-selling and marriage therapist, Gary Smalley. These two men discuss the ways that pride and hurtful words eat away at relationships. Gary also emphasizes the importance of honor, respect, and validation in every marriage. Click HERE to listen.
14. Guidelines for Marriage - John Randall
The apostle Paul discusses singleness, marriage, and sex in 1 Corinthians 7. As sexual immorality is on the rise, we need to be reminded now more than ever of what God has to say about sexual intimacy. He created it to be enjoyed within the marriage relationship. With that said, the Lord also gives some a gift of celibacy and calls them to remain single for a lifetime. Click HERE to listen.
15. Four Words that Can Change Your Marriage - Greg Laurie
It’s love that brings a husband and wife together in the first place. But there are times when spouses have “lost that lovin’ feeling.” Tuesday on A NEW BEGINNING, Pastor Greg Laurie points out the biblical definition of love and how it can guide us through any time of conflict. Learn more! Click HERE to listen
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