Tying the knot
My wife and I met in our early 40’s and married after a year-long, long-distance courtship. Typical of most church weddings, our minister’s homily spoke of the 3-stranded cord, unity, cleaving, and becoming one flesh. To conclude the marriage ceremony, he declared “what God has joined together, let man not separate” (Mark 10:9).

Twenty-five years since my wife and I lit our “unity” candle in the presence of our guests, it’s clear some of them didn’t listen to the minister’s homily nor take to heart his charge not to separate us. Were it the only time they’d heard the gospel message on marital oneness, I might understand their ignorance and divisive behaviors. However, the unity message is a universal one, in the sense that the same message has been delivered at countless weddings since we were married so long ago. So how many times can people sit through a wedding ceremony, hear the charge of Christ (Mark 10:9), then mindlessly set about trying to divide husband and wife the moment they say “I do”?
Where Paul wrote about marriage “This is a great mystery; but I am speaking in respect to Christ and the church” (Ephesians 5:32), it’s clear that marriage between a man and woman is patterned after the marriage of Christ to His people, His bride, His church. Just as the enemy does all that he can to separate people from Christ, he also does all he can to separate husband and wife. Often the assault on marriage comes through family members who continually find fault with the new “in-law”, or through other believers and the church, who try to invoke spiritual authority over a marriage. Throughout our marriage and cleaving to one another, my wife and I have experienced many attempts to separate us. For more about that, please see my other articles called I pledge my marriage to Christ Jesus and I pledge my head to Christ Jesus.
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