Saturday, August 04, 2007

The Practical Word...Continued

After publishing the last post, I continued to ponder God's command to not withhold affection/sexual relations from your spouse. So...muse number 7...

Why would God place this command in His Word? Verse 2 indicates it is due to sexual temptation. I'm sure that is a big part of the case. At least from a man's perspective, when my wife has been close to me, the sultry, attractive woman I see out and about doesn't even cause a second glance. My mind is focused on the love of the woman God gave me. Thus the ability to avoid lust (and any other horrid temptations and sin) is drastically increased.

But I also have to believe that God places an importance upon the closeness of the physical relationship because of the resulting closeness of the emotional relationship. If a married couple quit showing physical affection for one another, it isn't long before the rest of the relationship suffers. The reasons could be myriad, from focusing on "good" things like children, work, ministry, church...and thus not having the time or energy to devote to a physical relationship. Or it could be from the habit of using deprivation as a weapon in the relationship. Either way, God obviously values the marriage relationship over all the other things in life but Himself, and asks us to do the same, putting the physical relationship (and thus the emotional/spiritual relationship) above the children, above work, above ministry, above church activities, and certainly above any disagreements you have with your spouse. In fact, if each spouse is secure in the knowledge that they are loved unconditionally, my guess is the disagreements will be able to be worked out much more quickly than otherwise would be the case.

May all my married readers both give and receive the unconditional love God has provided for you in your spouse...for His glory!

(Further thoughts on this subject can be found in a subsequent post by clicking here.)

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