Tender Subject – October 21, 2021

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

Tender Subject

Today’s Bible verse touches on a tender subject. Many of us carry deep emotional wounds from the misuse of God’s gifts of marriage and sex. These wounds may be self-inflicted. Or we may be carrying them due to the actions of others. Our Lord cares about us enough, however, to speak to us about it in loving candor.

The Lord tells us, “Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure”—the “marriage bed” referring to God’s wedding gift of sexual intimacy. Our Heavenly Father is clear on this matter. His wedding gift of sexual intimacy is for a husband and wife to enjoy within the exclusive security of marriage—not before it and not outside of it. To emphasize his serious concern about this, his Word goes on to say, for God will judge the adulterer” (that is, anyone who is unfaithful in marriage) “and all the sexually immoral” (that is, anyone who misuses God’s wedding gift of sexual intimacy in any way, whether that person is married or single).

Several decades ago, our culture, to a great degree, bought into the premise that what God’s Word says about marriage is unnecessary. The implied promise was that if you threw off the old notions about marriage and sex, your life would be happier, healthier, more pleasurable, more free.

Sadly, the results are in: broken homes, broken trust, emotional scars for both parents and children, resentment, isolation, loneliness. Such is the nature of sin, of course—your sin and mine. It promises a better life if we only ignore God’s will for our lives. But sin can never deliver on its promise.

Jesus, however, does. Always. In our place, he lived a life of purity, a life of perfect obedience to God’s will. At the cross, his blood washed away our every unfaithfulness, our every dark sin. When we fix our eyes on him in repentant hearts, all is forgiven. All!

Which empowers us to begin again when it comes to our approach to marriage. All to the glory of our Savior.

Prayer:
Forgive me, Lord, for where I have fallen in this area of my life. Empower me to trust your will. Amen.