Suppose I were to ask for some marital advice. The imaginary conversation might go like this: “I travel a lot, speaking in various places. I’m wondering about something. When I come home, do I have to kiss my wife?” “You probably should,” might be the response.
“Oh, okay,” I reply. “Should it be a kiss on the mouth or on the cheek.”
“Probably on the mouth,” one might answer.
“Understood,” I say. “Can it be short little peck on the lips or does it need to be one of those long, romantic, movie type kisses?” I persist.
By now my counselor might pause and ask, “Steve, is there something wrong between you and Melanie?”
Who needs to ask advice like that? Not me! When I know Melanie is going to meet me at the airport, as she does each time I return home, I don’t sit on the airplane taxiing to the gate and pray, “Lord, I know what I should do now. I haven't seen her in days. Give me the power to kiss my wife when I see her. Lord, I need a double portion of pucker-power!” It has never happened. When I see my beautiful wife, I kiss her. I mean I really kiss her. It’s not the desire to be a good Christian husband or the goal to fulfill some responsibility in marriage that motivates me. It’s love.
Don’t try telling me the laws of marriage. I don’t want to hear it. They have nothing to do with me. I love my wife. The same is true in our relationship to Christ. In Jesus Christ, the laws don’t mean anything, but faith working through love means everything (See Galatians 5:6).
The relationship we have with Jesus Christ is the impetus for a godly lifestyle. It is a delight, not a duty for the believer who is abiding in Christ to live a lifestyle of obedience. Are there commandments in the Christian life? Of course; the New Testament gives commands for the believer but because we love Jesus, “His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). When a man is in love and his wife says, “Come here and kiss me now!” it won’t be a burden for him to fulfill her command. There’s no law in that command. As the bride of Christ who loves Him, when he tells us to do something it is our pleasure to be obedient.
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For this reason a man shall leave his mother and father and cleave to his wife and they shall be one flesh. Paul wrote, "the husband shall love his wife as Christ loves the church and the wife see that she respect her husband. But I speak about Christ and the church. The way Christ woos us to Him as His bride pictures the romance and relationship of man and wife in interaction. I see no law to keep. I see desire, grace, love like a circle with no ending, permanance in relationship, all free choices in grace walk.
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