Friday, January 25, 2013

Are you in a contract or covenant marriage?

When you get married you go get a license and sign a contract that you will be married to this person. Hmm a contract, what exactly is a contract?  According to Meriam-Webster a contract is :

Definition of CONTRACT

1
a : a binding agreement between two or more persons or parties; especially : one legally enforceable
b : a business arrangement for the supply of goods or services at a fixed price <make parts on contract>
c : the act of marriage or an agreement to marry
So what does that mean exactly? What do you think of when you inter a contract? You go buy a car you enter a contract. You agree to pay for a car either up front or so much a month, and they agree to let you use or have the car. Well if you stop making payments, or in our case are suddenly unable to pay them they have the legal right to say "oh well we are no longer getting our money so you are no longer able to have the car". So they come to your house in the middle of night, with no warning, they do not knock on the door so you can gather your things they just load up the car and its gone. Then to get your things out of it you have to pay a fee and give them the keys to the car. As Americans (of not 1st world countries) we have come to think of marriage this way. IE..."Well you don't cook as much as I do, or clean, or you just get on my nerves, and such so I no longer want to be married to you as you have broken the contract." And then there is yet another divorce on the record books.
But God set to make a marriage a covenant with two people. So let's look at what a covenant is:

covenant

 noun    (from Meriam-Webster website)
In the Hebrew scriptures, an agreement or treaty among peoples or nations, but most memorably the promises that God extended to humankind (e.g., the promise to Noah never again to destroy the earth by flood or the promise to Abraham that his descendants would multiply and inherit the land of Israel). God's revelation of the law to Moses on Mount Sinai created a pact between God and Israel known as the Sinai covenant. In Christianity, Jesus' death established a new covenant between God and humanity.

Let's explain the covenant process of the "days of old". A man would sacrifice an animal put one piece on the right and the other on the left and they would walk through it with the other person in the covenant making the covenant that if they did not uphold their part they commit to let the same thing happen to him that happened to the animal.
So let's think about what happens on a wedding day. On one side you have the bride's family. On the other you have the groom's family. The pastor and groom is at the front of the audience. The bride walks up to the groom alone (or with person giving her away) because there has not yet been a covenant made. The groom and bride make a covenant in from of God, the pastor, and the witnesses that they will honor, love, and stay together till death and then kiss. Then they turn are introduced and then walk together through the two sections as one in a covenant. When you are in a covenant marriage you are with that person no matter what no 50/50 or I leave but 100/100 and nothing can undo that commitment short of death.

So what kind of marriage are you in? 

Thank you to Brother Ken of Life Fellowship for showing me this and inspiring me to share.

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