Is Your Marriage Under the Old Covenant or the New?

When I was newly married, I plunged right into my role as wife. I did the cooking, the cleaning, the grocery shopping, the organizing because this is what a "good" wife does, right? I was consumed with my role.

 Far too many people have marriages like this. Their marriages are stuck in the legalism of the roles instead of in the grace of the relationship.

Marriage is a picture of our relationship with Christ. We, as believers in Jesus Christ, are called the Bride. Ephesians 5 details out what this relationship looks like. We are to walk in love (v.2) speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs (v 19).

My heart breaks when I look around at marriages that are trying to emulate this spiritual relationship out of their own flesh. What do I mean by this? Well, many couples in the church today are living in a marriage that is under the law instead of grace.

We do what we do because we think we should. We have become more concerned with our roles as husband and wife then our relationship as husband and wife. We don't do what we do out of graceful love.

 Somehow the message of the Cross has gotten lost in the honor, respect, and obey part. The actions of our daily roles have taken center stage over the sacrificial love that Christ so sweetly demonstrated in His life and death.

Husbands and wives, it is time to put our marriages in the proper order: relationship first then roles. Let how we function in our homes flow out of our relationship with each other. Let our marriages live in the New Covenant of grace rather than the Old Covenant of the law.