“Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.” (Hebrews 13:4)
It’s easy to read this verse and hear, “Don’t have sex until you’re married!” or “Don’t have sex with anyone but your spouse!” I’d guess that many of us read it as a “NO” verse. But really it’s a “GO” verse. It’s a positive command.
We all tend to be so focused on the bottom line of what we can and can’t do – what the rules are – that we can miss what the point is. And the point is that marriage is a huge deal to God. It’s an even bigger deal than sex. He introduced the idea of marriage in the second chapter of the whole Book – with sex as the physical act that seals the lifelong commitment between man and wife.
God will judge sexual sin because it’s how we say, “We don’t care about marriage.” “We don’t care about that promise.” “We don’t care about that living illustration of Jesus’ eternal connection to Christians in the church.”
Let’s go and honor biblical marriage however we can.
Think: Sexual temptation is a demanding battle for most people. Do you tend to think of it as a battle for marriage or a battle against yourself? Does it help to think of it as a battle for something positive, instead of just a constant resisting of a “bad” thing?
Pray: Ask God to give you a passion for marriage, even if you never end up married. Ask him to help you to care about what he cares about enough to build strategies to honor marriage and the “marriage bed.”
Do: Read how marriage is supposed to help us understand the relationship between Christ and the church in Ephesians 5:23-32.