Family Foundations

Building Blocks of a Covenant Marriage

Elements of the covenant:

• Two or more parties are involved.

• Those involved commit themselves to a binding agreement.

• The agreement involves promises or oaths.

• The oath usually has some physical sign or symbol.

• The oath is made before a witness or witnesses.

• The covenant is usually sealed.

• A ceremony or a ritual is performed to enforce it.

• The covenant has serious/ negative consequences experienced by those who break it and benefits for those who keep it.

 

FIVE BUILDING BLOCKS OF A COVENANT MARRIAGE:

• Jesus as the Cornerstone

24 “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. 25 Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. 26 But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. 27 When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.”  Matthew 7:24-27 NLT

The covenant between a husband and a wife is made “before God” and therefore with God as well as the spouse. To break faith with your spouse is to break faith with God at the same time.

QUESTIONS

Will you have this woman to be your wife? And will you make your promise to her in all love and honor, in all duty and service, in all faith and tenderness—to live with her, and cherish her, according to the ordinance of God, in the holy bond of marriage?

• Trust

Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. Proverbs 3:5-6 NLT

• You have to be trustworthy to receive trust.
• Trust and truth go hand in hand. 

VOWS

I take you to be my lawful and wedded husband, and I do promise and covenant, before God and these witnesses, to be your loving and faithful wife. In plenty and in want, in joy and in sorrow, in sickness and in health, as long as we both shall live.

• Commitment

3 Some Pharisees came and tried to trap him with this question: “Should a man be allowed to divorce his wife for just any reason?” 4 “Haven’t you read the Scriptures?” Jesus replied. “They record that from the beginning ‘God made them male and female.’” 5 And he said, “‘This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’ 6 Since they are no longer two but one, let no one split apart what God has joined together.”  Matthew 19:3-6 NLT

14 You cry out, “Why doesn’t the Lord accept my worship?” I’ll tell you why! Because the Lord witnessed the vows you and your wife made when you were young. But you have been unfaithful to her, though she remained your faithful partner, the wife of your marriage vows. 15 Didn’t the Lord make you one with your wife? In body and spirit you are his. And what does he want? Godly children from your union. So guard your heart; remain loyal to the wife of your youth. 16 “For I hate divorce!” says the Lord, the God of Israel. “To divorce your wife is to overwhelm her with cruelty,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “So guard your heart; do not be unfaithful to your wife.”  Malachi 2:14-16 NLT

• Giving

 21 And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22 For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. 24 As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything. 25 For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her 26 to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word.   Ephesians 5:21-26 NLT

• Sacrifice

25 For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her 26 to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. 27 He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. Ephesians 5:25-27 NLT

Sacrifice really involves risking yourself.

• Sacrifice is risking emotional pain.
• The purpose of love is the perfecting of the one loved.

So, the goal of love is not just kindness motivated by a desire to make your spouse happy. The goal is to build your spouse up to bring about God’s purpose in his or her life.

Next steps for me today…

• To see marriage as God sees it.

• To honor the covenant of marriage.