50/50 Deception

Submitting to one another in love. What a lost concept this is within our culture, especially within marriage. We have bought into a cultural lie that has taught us that marriage is based upon a relationship where both partners are expected to give their 50%...they are expected to carry their end of the bargain. I've often heard remarks such as, "Well, as long as he is doing his part, I don't have a problem doing my part. But if he (or she) doesn't, well, hit the road!"

While openly making a remark like that certainly wouldn't be appropriate or acceptable in our Christian circles (I hope, but not too sure), many couples have nonetheless fully accepted this notion and function from this basic foundation. Yet, this foundation is doomed from the start. It is built on sand not on the solid Rock, which is Christ himself. Our insistence on our spouse to even come halfway in meeting our needs is never going to happen, for that space can only be filled by the person of Jesus Christ. He has reserved the meeting of all our needs for Himself alone.

Our Savior Jesus, the one we claim to follow and love, said himself that he came to "serve" and to "lay down his life." The Bible also tells us that while we were still sinners, Jesus loved us and died for us. (my paraphrase) What kind of love is this? Is this a conditional 50/50 kind of love? Is this the kind of love that huffs and complains when our husbands or wives don't meet our every expectation and need?

Let's don't build our marriages on a purely "conditional" love, on our needs and wants being fulfilled. The only way we can rise above this fleshly desire for having it "our way" is to daily submit ourselves before the Lord in prayer, humbling ourselves and becoming a servant, remembering that love covers a multitude of sins, and that our Lord came and gave all so that we may partake of life and be His forever. No matter how wonderful we may be as spouses to one another, we will disappoint each other, we will have "off" days where we are utterly unlovable, we will reject one another, we will royally fail at times.

Yet, may we as the Bride of Christ rise up with the power of God and show a lost world the sacrificial love of Christ that we have been and are being shown daily by Him. A love that never quits, that never lashes out demanding "our fair share," a love the world will see and know that can only come from the Spirit of God. They will want this love, friends, for this is unconditional, unearthly, and unfathomable. And this kind of love never fails in God's eyes.