Cherishing Marriage

Observations

• God made our natural desires and encouraged us to meet them within the confines of marriage.
• God forbidding us to have a relationship outside of marriage is not to ruin your fun but to prolong your joy.
• The command about murder warns about ending a life, but the one about adultery warns about ruining a family.
• Intimacy establishes a unique one-flesh union compared to any other human relationship.
• Jesus raised the purity bar by warning against wandering eyes and lustful hearts (Matt. 5:27-30).
• Unfaithfulness in marriage should be unthinkable since it exists to serve as the example of God’s faithful love for us (Eph. 5:25).

Applications

• Strive for purity in singleness so that you can experience satisfaction in marriage.
• Protect your family against the addiction and devastation that accompanies pornography.
• Any sexual deviation outside of heterosexual marriage is sinful in the eyes of God.
• Emphatically end any adulterous or flirtatious connection with someone who isn’t your spouse.
• The greater you prioritize meeting various needs within your marriage, the less of a chance you seek fulfillment elsewhere.