Title: Principles of a healthy married life
Contents
Principles of a healthy married life / 1 Corinthians 7:1-11
In Korea, the divorce rate has not increased significantly since 2004. It sounds like a good thing, but there is actually a bad reason. It means that more and more people say, “I don’t divorce, but I live with another lover.”
We who live here may be a little unfamiliar, but if we stay away from our husbands and wives, we focus only on sports, shopping, dramas, and work, and live with our children, it cannot be said that it is very different.
Today's text is about families and couples. It may be a story to be shared only at a wedding seminar, but this is the first text we will meet as we are going to continue the book of 1 Corinthians, which has been paused in the meantime. The grace of God's word will surely be there. The full text enlightens you on marital life, warnings about divorce, and attitudes to living alone.
God still works through the Word, so I believe that this time is also a necessary word that God gives to our church, me and you through the Word. Whether you are single, married, or single for various reasons, I hope this will be an opportunity for you to realize that God loves you and that God has a plan for you.
Looking at the text, we see that the church always has problems. But you will come to realize that you are living by relying on the Lord and winning. Even in the Corinthian church, a serious problem that emerged in family life was extreme faith at the time. Fairy tales in the world, there is no need to live holy. All we have to do is believe in Jesus and go to heaven in moderation, so let's live our lives enjoying our pleasures. Paul already talked about fornication on this issue in chapter 6, so don't join it with prostitutes. Live a holy life, it says in advance that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.
Even now, there are people who stay away from such holiness and are only church members. Even now, there are people who say they believe in Jesus, live in each room, live without a conversation between husband and wife, children, meditate on TV, and listen only to the world.
However, we must not forget and obey God's order of creation, which God created Adam and Eve and sent to this world so that husband and wife could live together in love.
Verse 2 says, “Having your own wife and your own husband because of fornication.”
In the text, Paul speaks of “because of fornication”. Originally, men and women served God, and God gave them the blessing of being fruitful and prosperous.
On this basis, the blessing of loving God and loving life was given to the couple. However, the text says to marry “on account of fornication”. What does it mean?
It refers to man's sinful nature. People are weak! Since sin has come in, life is not able to properly control or handle sexual desires, so don't commit crimes, and build a healthy married life through marriage.
In Genesis, it says, “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18). Marriage and married life are precious in the sight of God. God's creation order is to be happy together as restored children of God.
God who made us beautiful, we who are prone to broken families in the age of sexual immorality due to sin, we want to understand clearly in the text what God wants and gives us for a healthy family life today.
1. A married couple whose religious life and family life are in harmony
There was an erroneous attack of the Gnosticism at the time. The attack was that body and soul are different things, only the soul is noble. Therefore, they abused the body and restrained desires from arising, and the more abused one's body, the more noble the soul. Of course, this life is not evangelical. The gospel in Jesus that God has given is not to bind everything in us, but to give us freedom, and this is the same in married life and family life.
By the way, everyone, it is easy to live with this wrong asceticism even now. Choi Young-gun said, “Look at gold as stone,” but today, people in their homes see their husbands as animals and their wives as seeing strangers passing by the roadside.
Classic humor, but said by a passenger on the way in a taxi. The passenger in the back said, "You still haven't said where you're going," said the taxi driver. “No, when did you get on it? I had no idea!”
This is something that can happen at home. The husband says to his wife, “We forgot to have dinner too!”, then she says. “Were you at your house?”
Verse 3 says, “A husband shall perform his duty to his wife, and a wife to her husband.” Husbands and wives should not live a life of formal obligations, but should fulfill their physical and spiritual duties and enjoy a life of joy.
And in verse 5 of the text, “Do not be distracted” and “Make an exception while praying for a while.” The meaning of a room, not a room, contains the meaning of the couple's sexual life. The words of prayer contain the meaning of spiritual life. This refers to the harmony of spirituality and the couple's sexual life. Everyone, are you living with the deep love and affection of the couple? It is right to live that way! Everyone, are you diligently serving the Lord as partners in your life of faith? That's how you have to live.
A couple live in the same room and share many things, but there is something clear in the meaning of the text. “If you are married, you should not neglect each other’s sex life.” Amen? Why? Negatively, it is for “not to tempt you with Satan”, and positively “for a happy married life”.
A couple said, "It's comfortable if we each share a room, we can't hear snoring, we can sleep well, and we've decided to live without burdening each other."
However, we must see the spiritual and physical crisis in such a heart. It is never a healthy mind posture. In order to be spiritually and physically healthy, we need to live closer together. I hope that the body and mind will become one again by sleeping and living together instead of sharing each room.
Paul is also talking about a couple with one heart. Look at verse 4. The wife's body is the husband's, and the husband's body is the wife's. This is an important attitude of faith, and the center of all life in marital life, sex life, and conversation should be the other person, not the self.
It says in 1 Corinthians 13:5. “Love is not rude, it does not seek its own.”
This is a very important truth. It's not just about married couples. In order to live the life of a married couple like first love again, you have to start a new life that is considerate of the other person. I hope that it will be the grace that you realize now and the words that apply.
You must obey this word well to fulfill the words of verse 5. “Do not let Satan tempt you.” If you live passively between husband and wife, Satan can come and destroy you enough. How many such families! “Satan is the one who digs in if there is only a pod and wants to build a strong camp between husband and wife, devastate the family, and destroy it. Never forget.
Are you comfortable with not hearing snoring? If we are vigilant, the devil may come and attack us like a roaring lion to entangle us and devour us. Of course, when a couple lives, sesame seeds are not always poured out. You can't always live with a good heart, right? However, even people who do not love can live together and deepen into love and turn around, and there are people who do not communicate well even when they love. Guys, don't ignore your husband! Don't leave your wife unattended again! Do not spend time with the wrong things, other people, or the wrong friends, and I hope that you and your spouse will live a healthy life together.
The second principle of a healthy married life is,
2. Couples still developing happiness
In verse 10 and below, we are told not to divorce. Do we have anything to do with divorce? no. Although our lives are a couple, there are people who live like men and women. There are countless people who decide to divorce or are thinking of divorce. However, if we really realize the heart of God, we should become a couple who actively plant happiness, not meditate on divorce. This is the exhortation on the subject of divorce in the text.
Even now, there are people who regret living as a married couple. “The greatest mistake of my life was meeting that person, ah! There are people who live with the thought of “I miss the good old days, bring back my past!” Is there anyone here who says, “I don’t have the courage to live together like this”?
But, gentlemen, if we are married for any reason, there is a deep will of God between husband and wife. God's plan to make the couple into one body is not only in the time of Genesis. Even now, He is a God who rejoices in being married as one body. You may not sympathize, but surely God has a plan for your couple's life.
This is a phrase that the bride and groom often hear when they get married. “You cannot share what God has joined together.” Everyone, rather than thinking, “Why can’t we share?” I hope there is. And have the heart of the Lord. Right now, I am unhappy, painful, and difficult, but God's will is clearly in our meeting. As you live and find out what it means, have the confidence that the life of a new couple will begin again.
Verses 10-11 say, “A woman shall not divorce her husband, nor shall a husband divorce his wife.” Furthermore, we are told not to abandon even the “unbelieving spouse.” There is also God's plan for us to meet, and we want you to see God's will to save souls. The will of God who gave us the possibility of saving souls. With this fact alone, I want you to be by my side and make it an opportunity. Therefore, there are times in the family when we really live the missionary heart.
There is a famous Augustine confession. “If there were only me left in this world, God would have sent Jesus for me.” Everyone, I bless you that the love of God who sent you, the only begotten Son who came to save me, can touch your hearts. And if you look to the Lord who came not only for me, but for my husband and my wife, look at the heart of Jesus who is working and praying for my wife or husband.
However, there are still people who live alone. There are also people who are divorced. We do not know much about human affairs except ourselves. It is not a matter for a third party to judge. I believe that the church's job is to comfort the members with all their might, to participate in the pain, to help the wounds and pains recover, to help them rise again, and to serve.
Third, a healthy married life is
3. Couples who do not depend on only the husband and wife, but depend on God
For the remainder of the text, Paul deals with the issue of celibacy. He promotes living for God as a single person like himself. Because it pleases God.
He says there are many reasons to be single. Those who have been single since birth, have been single from birth, and have decided to live alone for the sake of the kingdom of God. Paul is in the third case. It is argued that Paul must have been married in view of his powerful life in the past, but in any case, it is clear that the Apostle Paul bought himself single for the sake of the gospel after the Damexian experience.
Some of you here are still single, and after marriage, you are now alone. Perhaps there are people who are single and want to live their lives looking only at God.
But the important thing in common is that life should be to serve God better. Whether married or living alone, we must live for the glory of God. Paul said, “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it for the glory of God!”
I see many elderly people in our church living alone. Not only do you feel left alone, but believe that I have a mission to look to the Lord and live in the Word and prayer. Please walk with the Lord more.