Tim and Kathy Keller discuss the meaning of marriage in a pre-conference session at The Gospel Coalition’s 2012 National Women’s Conference. For more resources on this topic, see: www.thegospelc...
I tell every couple that marriage is like a triangle with Jesus at the top. The closer you get to Jesus, the closer you get to each other. I know this sounds exaggerated, but it's not! I'm more in love with my wife now than the when we were FIRST falling in love--not because of how great my wife is (and she IS OUTSTANDING!!!), but because of how faithful our God Jesus has been to us!!!
My husband and I looked into many different pastors to help us through our troubled marriage and this book really helped us and we put God in the middle of our marriage and now we are doing wonderful. Praise be to God.
This is by far the best sermon on marriage from Tim Keller that I've found online. Soooo good and essential as I struggle with the disillusionment of marriage and what the expectations of the partner should be.
One reason why divorces are so high, is that people call it quits at the first sign of trouble, rather than sit down and talk about it like adults, find a solution that benefits both husband and wife, not have a shouting argument fest, or get physical about it. Showing true love, and realize that marriage is not a contest about who's better than the other partner, both have unique and special roles to fulfill that will bring them closer together, not put a wedge between them and drive them apart, my grandparents got married back in the early 30's, it ended in 1988, when grandma died from cancer.They never left each other's side, they were faithful to the very end.
Fantastic .. ive recently got married and let me tell you its like training hardcore in a intense bootcamp ...if you committed great things can happen and rewards ..
I believe that intimacy in marriage advances in holiness, mutual forgiveness and love when among them the confessions of sin that each one makes personally to God can be heard aloud, where we express all those daily leaks of our mind, if not are treated and can silently flood the house where they both live.
All of this is so extremely helpful! I am so messed up!! This culture is so far from how God views love and marriage. Thank you for this because it helps me to see I do not have the right view of marriage. Hard to admit, but I need to change
I liked this explanation re: contract vs covenant. A contract's main purpose is supposed to protect yourself from the abuse of the other party. Versus covenant the interest of the other party becomes your main goal! Mr Keller brings up another important point which I wish I would stress a bit more here: "if I love someone so they love me back, than I really only love myself through them".
Amber Slahlize thanks for the note but not sure I understand it. I get you never married your ex and obviously not your boyfriend either. But the info between the two I don't really get.
Wish I knew this wisdom when I was married years ago it’s not easy but it’s a two way thing sacrifice if you can will make us better persons and happy parents
I could not help noticing that marriage was referred to as a covenant which legally binds a woman and a man to become one and to serve each other with God been at the center.
Kathy is a great and eloquent speaker but please remember you are not speaking to theologian students. I am very thankful Tim make it accessible to regular people.
Awesome, inspiration to a new and deeper reality of Gods ordained omnivorously potent veiw on His purpose in His creation. Thank you both with the Love of our precious Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Raymond n Tanya n Baby Ruth almost 3 months now, So preciously given us to raise properly in The Lord. The Neeley faimly.
Marriage is to help each other cultivate God's character within them. It's like God wanting to build up his church to represent him in all ways. Adam and Eve were to never stop transitioning into the likeness of God. But Sin.
I have to comment on stats in general. Be careful what you take away from them. For example. There is a stat that people are more likely to die in a Corvette accident than a Volvo accident and people use that to show Volvo is a safer car but what the stat doesn't show is people who by Corvettes probably did so because they like to go fast. Same with the sex before marriage thing. That stat doesn't show that sex before marriage can result in a higher divorce rate. It could be showing that those people like to live in the fast lane.
The OP has a good point. We should remember that back. When divorce was less common, abused people could not get out of their marriage, people who are being cheated on perpetually could not get out of their marriage, at least not if they wanted to be accepted in society and have any financial means of support. Low divorce rates are not necessarily all good.
Romans 7:2-3 and 1st Corinthians 7:39 marriage covenant is clearly defined "until death!" Death of a spouse is the only thing that breaks the sacred covenant of marriage!
Men who are married on average live 10 yrs longer then single men, have less illness, are higher educated, get paid more (Married men make $16,000- $20,000 or 10-24% more more than single men with similar backgrounds). The average fifty something married man has three times the assets of his unmarried peer, about $167,000 compared to less than $49,000. Men who stay married are in much better financial shape than their peers who divorced or those who never married in the first place. Married men earn more, save more, and generally have access to a second income. Because women spend 243.2 minutes doing unpaid labor each day around the house, or about 28.4 hours a week, an average saving of nearly $40,000 occurs per year in unpaid labour compared to single men. Married men are more likely to ask for a raise, receive regular checkups and medical care, maintain healthy diets, exercise, have a better and more frequent sex life (51 percent of married men reported they were extremely physically and emotionally satisfied with sex, compared to 39 percent of cohabiting men and 36 percent of single men). Married men enjoy higher standards of living, benefit from lower levels of stress, are happier, have fewer stress-related diseases, and they receive better care during times of illness. Marriage seems improve the lifestyle of men and stabilizes their lives. Research has shown that men are more sexually satisfied when they are in a lasting relationship because both spouses are making long-term investments in intimacy, and when they have sex with somone who regularly wants to have sex with them they release the most dopamine. Contrary to this, never-married, divorced, and widowed men are more likely to drink excessively, engage in dangerous behavior, smoke, suffer depression, loneliness, commit suicide, have a lower income, less direction in life, catch STD's, have deadly heart attacks, and die early. Men are more likely than women to say that it’s better to get married than to go through life single, and among the Men are more likely than women to say that it’s better to get married than to go through life single, and among the unmarried, men are more likely than women to report that they would prefer to be married. On the other hand, women’s health doesn’t improve significally with marriage. In fact, women’s health is much more tied to the quality of the marriage. While even bad marriages seem to benefit men, women’s health suffers a bigger impact than men’s if the marriage is bad. Marriage benefits men more than it does women. Married men are happier and healthier than their unmarried counterparts, their careers also benefit, and married men are more likely than unmarried men to be in the top 1% of earners. Prov 18:22. He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the LORD.
As one of the 50% of America’s that are single I was disappointed in her response to singles. Jesus was chaste and so can you be! You are here to remind marriage people not to idolize their marriages.
Please share what verse in any verse about marriage now let me be clear here there are verses about love from God that are not the ones I need to see because yes some of those have the word covenant in them. I have read the bible about marriage and I have not found that word in any of the verses so either I am missing something or again as I have always found and believed your interpretation of what the bible says is your own version to suit your views. And the verse is Genesis 2:24, "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." nothing in there has to do with a covenant. Every time I hear anyone read from the bible they add their own words and here you all are talking about telling people the truth and gospel as it is written if that is true then read it exactly as it is written then explain the meaning. No wonder so many people have a hard time believing or finding a proper church.
I'm prepared to die, but I'm just imagining a life full of dying without the same devotion from my spouse.. I guess that's what sucks about this marriage thing. Great sermon tho, thank you.
Mostly good stuff here, but seemingly the Christian church will need to reform its complimentarian teachings to be more egalitarian. Moreover, I wish Christian ministers would stop abrogating the technical definition of “covenant” to explain the concept of unconditional enduring love buoyed by a (marital) contract (i.e., a legally enforceable agreement). Actually, covenants are contractual rights and obligations that extend to future successors in interests, as with obligations to use one’s real property in a certain way based on an agreement made by an original owner(s) and passed along to the current owner as a matter of contract.
My only criticism is from cynicism. My interest is to understand the Lord's design, but the flesh wants to serve itself. And he's got every selfish reason listed here.
Kathy is sailing dangerously close to the wind (of feminism). Set phrases from worldly and churchly standard feminist jargon hint this way and the whole discourse is broadly one-sided not on surface, but on more subtle levels. And this is not spontaneous speech, it is premeditated written down and read material.
Kathy comes across as an "academic". Using terminology some would not understand and then excusing herself with an explanation. She begins reading scriptures and quickly her intonation becomes such that it sounds like "Blah, blah, blah, this is boorish and mundane". Find it hard to believe that this is anything other than a commercial enterprise for her.
Irvin Reeves using the correct word but recognizing it may not be familiar to ones audience so defining it is a common practice in public presentations
Irvin Reeves I have heard Tim employ his academic training with his extensive literacy, providing exegesis of Greek or Aramaic words, describing ancient cultures, quoting literature and philosophy..which one.could define as academic. Does this trouble you?
