Just as anything of value needs to be guarded and protected, the same also is true with love. Love is one of the greatest gifts that you will ever have and just like all great gifts, we often take it for granted and do not fully appreciate it until it is gone. Don’t allow love to be left, lost, stolen or plundered because it was not protected in your life.
‘I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Revelation 2:2-4
The most important relationship in your life is your relationship with God. You must guard your love relationship with God. How easy it is to get “caught up” in serving Him and neglect our time with Him. We can persevere, endure and not grow weary for Him but if we are not spending time with Him then we have neglected and left out the most important time in our life and that is our own personal time with Him. When we neglect this area, then it is only a matter of time before we will neglect our other relationships, for God is love and we need to continually be growing in the love and truth which is in Jesus Christ.
But no one can enter the strong man’s house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house. Mark 3:27
Stay close to the Lord for He is the strong One and will not allow anyone to plunder what belongs to Him. You belong to Christ and He calls you His beloved. To belong to someone is to “be longing” for that one and to be called someone’s beloved means that you are the one that they are to “be loving”. In a similar way, if a wife stays close to her husband and longs for her husband, then no one will be able to take her away from him. If a husband is faithful to be loving to his wife then no one can enter his house and take what is his.
For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. Genesis 2:24,25
When the Lord brought Adam and Eve together in marriage then He had specific instructions for them. Marriage is the most intimate relationship on earth and is the only relationship where there is a union of spirit, soul and body. The Lord says that He joins two people together in marriage and that they are not to be separated.
And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” Matthew 18:4-6
Once someone becomes married to someone then that person is their spouse until one of them dies. The marriage vows and God’s Word is binding on the couple who get married. Marriage vows are made to protect the marriage. Love may bring a couple together but the marriage vows keep a married couple together. The Lord wants us to keep our vows that we made to God. Marriage vows are not made to each other but they are vows that each person makes to God. Do not say after you are married that it was a mistake. Life is not the same for the one who does not keep their vows and who sins and is foolish in their actions and words by not keeping their vows and saying that it was a mistake for them to have married that person. The Lord wants you to keep your marriage vows.
When you make a vow to God, do not be late in paying it; for He takes no delight in fools. Pay what you vow! It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. Do not let your speech cause you to sin and do not say in the presence of the messenger of God that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry on account of your voice and destroy the work of your hands? Ecclesiastes 5:4-6
If one of them is unfaithful and the unfaithful one does not keep their vows then it does not negate the vows of the other. If one of them leaves and marries another then it does not give the other spouse the “freedom” to marry someone else. They are only free to remain unmarried until the unfaithful spouse dies.
But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband (but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband should not divorce his wife. I Corinthians 7:10,11
The Lord gives clear instructions to the married couple. The wife is not to leave her husband, but if does, she is to remain unmarried. A husband is not to divorce his wife.
A wife is bound as long as her husband lives; but if her husband is dead, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord. I Corinthians 7:39
If a woman who has been married and her first husband is still alive and she marries another man then she is committing and living in adultery. The man who marries her is also committing and living in adultery.
For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man. Romans 7:2,3
If a man divorces his wife and marries another woman then he is sinning as well. The Lord says that the husband is not to divorce his wife. A wife will not leave a husband who loves her. If a wife has left her husband then the husband needs to seek to be reconciled with his wife and pursue her in love.
“This is another thing you do: you cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and with groaning, because He no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. Yet you say, ‘For what reason?’ Because the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. But not one has done so who has a remnant of the Spirit. And what did that one do while he was seeking a godly offspring? Take heed then to your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of your youth. For I hate divorce,” says the Lord, the God of Israel, “and him who covers his garment with wrong,” says the Lord of hosts. “So take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously.” Malachi 2:13-16
The Lord hates divorce. Divorce has never been in His plan. Divorce brings grief and destruction to all in the family. The New Testament never refers to a divorced person, only to one who is unmarried and that is if that one has been married before, but is not longer with their spouse who is still living. The unmarried are to stay unmarried. If there is divorce then remarriage is not permissible in God’s will. If someone leaves or is unfaithful then the other spouse is not under bondage to perform the marriage duties and they are not free to remarry. Protect your marriage. The Lord has made you one with each other. Guard the love that you had at the beginning. Keep your vows. The Lord is able to rekindle the love and restore your marriage.
Instructions To A Young Life 