One Flesh

One Flesh

An elderly couple, married for sixty-one years, were asked at their anniversary celebration the secret to their marriage. The husband said: 'We decided early that divorce was not in our vocabulary. So when things were hard — and they were very hard at times — we had to find another way.' The wife added: 'We didn't stay married because it was always wonderful. We stayed because we promised, and because the promises held when the feelings didn't.' The pastor who officiated said afterward: 'That is a sermon in two sentences. The covenant holds when the feeling goes. And when the feeling comes back — and it did, in their case — it comes back richer because the covenant held it.'

Jesus' teaching on marriage in Mark 10 places the marriage covenant in the framework of creation: the Creator joins husband and wife, and no human should dissolve what divine joining has created. This is an elevated view of marriage — not as a social contract terminable by mutual consent, but as a covenant witnessed by God Himself. The implications are serious and costly in a culture where marriage is treated as primarily a vehicle for personal fulfillment. But the vision is also glorious: two people permanently joined in a covenant that images the relationship between Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:25-32). Whether you are married or single, the covenant-keeping God who holds marriages together is the same God who holds His covenant with His people. His character doesn't change with circumstances.