How we relate to other people deeply matters to the LORD.
People are God's special creation. We are crafted by God's mighty hand. God breathed his spirit into human beings. We are the only part of creation that was and continues to be made in God's own image. We bear the image of God... So when we show love, honor, and respect to other human beings, we are honoring God. When we insult, cheat, or hurt other human beings; we are bringing dishonor to God and doing damage to a unique creation who bears the image of God.
As I read through various commands in Leviticus 18 & 19 I am struck by how much God cares about the way human relationships are carried out. He wants us to care for, love, and respect one another-- no matter what.
In Leviticus 18 the LORD details several commands related to sexual relationships. God gave sex as a unique gift to men and women who have entered a committed and loving marriage relationship. It is the highest form of human intimacy and is a reflection of an intimate relationship with our loving creator. When Jesus saves us he comes to live in us in the presence of his Holy Spirit. This is a deeply intimate connection. We see whispers of this in a God honoring marriage of a man and a woman. The gift of a sexual relationship within the bonds of that marriage is a portrait of God's intimate connection to us through his loving son Jesus.
Sexual relationships are also an area that are easily twisted ad defiled by sinful human beings. They can become one of the darkest and most harmful areas of life if we let selfishness, lust, and a "me-first" attitudes take control.
Marriage-- God honoring marriage-- is about giving yourself completely to another person. A husband gives himself to his wife... And a wife gives herself to her husband. As it says in Genesis-- The two shall become one flesh. I must no longer seek my own good first, but the good of my wife first. The same must be true of my wife toward me. We serve one another in love. Each one seeking the other's benefit in everything we do, say, and think.
Ephesians 5:25-28 says, 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 to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves his own body.
I honor God and his work in this world when I lay down my own life for my wife. When I forgo self and seek to give to her to meet her needs, I show the love of Christ. That's why the call in Ephesians 5:23 that tells wives to submit to their husbands is correct. If a man is living out the biblical mandate for a husband, his heart is always and only focused on honoring God and laying down his life for his wife. If a husband loves his wife, like Christ loves the church, then both halves of the marriage relationship will work in perfect, loving, harmony. Each one serving the other for their good-- always and forevermore!
Before the LORD explicitly lays out directions and commands connected to human sexuality he says this to his people-- (Leviticus 18:5) If you obey my decrees and my regulations, you will find life through them. I am the LORD.
This has been and continues to be completely true in my life-experience. It is especially true in my marriage! I have a wonderful wife. She is so loving toward me and I seek to show her just as much love. We try to always honor one another. And my heart is constantly seeking to lay my life down for her and to serve her in love. The more we obey God and honor God in our marriage relationship the more God blesses our lives. In following the word of God and following Christ we are definitely finding that "life more abundant" that Jesus promised.
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