Marriage Oneness: Holy and Happy-Part 1

God wants marriages to be holy. The pathway of marital oneness is walking in holiness. God calls us to be holy (1 Pet. 1:16). The pursuit of God engenders holiness. Walking in holiness impels the pursuit of marital happiness, to love your spouse “just as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her (Eph.5:25). Authentic intimacy with God shapes your relationship with your spouse. Be in a continuous state of seeking righteousness, and marital joy will follow (Matt.6:33). Holiness is an attribute of God and the core of expressed oneness in marriage. God shares His holiness with us through the indwelling of His Holy Spirit that we may walk in Him (Heb.12:10).

In an analogy between Christ, the Church, and husbands and wives, the Apostle Paul states that Christ’s sacrificial love makes the Church holy. The apostle also asserts that a husband’s sacrificial love can facilitate his wife’s holiness through his spiritual leadership. Paul explains that a husband’s ministry of God’s Word to his wife, primarily through his life, is a powerful Christian witness toward greater oneness:

Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word, and present her to himself as a radiant Church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless (Eph.5:25-27).

Similarly, a wife’s virtuous conduct can lead her husband to spiritual transformation:
“In the same way, wives, be subject to your own husbands. Then, if some are disobedient to the Word, they will be won over without a word by the way you live” (1Pet.3:1, NETB).

God’s love leads us to be holy, for He is holy; and to be happy for He is our joy.

Excerpt from the Pursuit of Marriage Oneness: The Key to Marital Success