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Marriage in This Passing World (2)

I Corinthians 7:29-31 shows how important one’s understanding of eschatology (or the last things) is in marriage. Just as the church’s unity requires not only "one faith" but also "one hope" (Eph. 4:4, 5), so Christian couples ought to share "one hope" in Christ, as it is set forth in the Scriptures.

If the wife’s hope is the rapture of the church (so that believers will avoid the great tribulation) followed 7 years later by the 1,000 year reign of Christ on earth, but the husband’s hope is the bodily return of Christ to renew heaven and earth, there is disunity in the marriage, because they do not have the same hope. Or if a husband hopes for the Christianization of all the countries of the world so that believers predominate and the civil governments draft and enforce biblical laws, while his wife maintains that the perfection of the world comes with Christ’s glorious return, they are divided by their different hopes. In mixed marriages, the believer watches and waits for Christ’s return, while the unbeliever has no such interest and prefers not to think about it. Here the spiritual disunity between them shows itself in the fact that the believing spouse lives by hope while the unbelieving spouse has "no hope" (Eph. 2:12)

According to Postmillennial Reconstructionism, "the fashion of this world passeth away" (I Cor. 7:31) refers to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. Thus Ken Gentry refers to Christ’s second coming as being in the "distant" future (He Shall Have Dominion, p. 331). This makes the apostolic requirement for the Corinthians (in first century Greece) and for us (in the twenty-first century) of sitting loose to marriage (and to weeping, rejoicing, buying, and selling) of little sense (29-31). Regarding marriage, Premillennial Dispensationalism holds that it passes away at the rapture for believers, that it continues for the non-raptured in the great tribulation, and that it returns in an earthly 1,000 year-reign of Christ on earth, before it passes away again at the end of the millennium. The Reformed Amillennialist, however, believes that marriage belongs to this present age/world, and that it passes away with this age/world, for in the age/world to come there is no marriage (Luke 20:34-36). In the new heavens and the new earth, the reality to which our marriages must point—the union between Christ and His bride, the church—is perfected forever (cf. Rev. 19:7-9).

Thus two Christians contemplating marrying each other ought to agree together on eschatology (as well as on the other doctrines of the faith) before they wed. What future would your marriage have if you do not even agree on the future of marriage? Those who consider becoming "one flesh" (Gen. 2:24) ought to have "one hope" (Eph. 4:4), which is part of being of "the same mind" (I Cor. 1:10). Moreover, they must not merely have "one hope" objectively but this should be a living hope, so that both long for Christ’s coming and pray (individually and together), "Even so, come, Lord Jesus" (Rev. 22:20).

This radical, new understanding of the end of our present mode of existence implies a calling regarding marriage: "they that have wives be as though they had none" (I Cor. 7:29). This does not set aside God’s command that husbands love their wives, as Christ loved His church (Eph. 5:25). It does not mean that husbands do not have to provide for their wives or that they may defraud their wives sexually (I Cor. 7:3-5) or simply divorce them (10-13). But it does mean that marriage is not an end in itself; it is a means of serving God. Your spouse and children are only loaned to you, and your time with them is relatively brief.

Because "the time is short" (29), "they that weep [should be] as though they wept not" (30). The Lord here does not require us to kill our godly affections and bowels of mercies or never to cry. Indeed, there is "a time to weep" (Ecc. 3:4) and we are commanded to "weep with them that weep" (Rom. 12:15). But when we sorrow over departed brethren, we do not sorrow "as others which have no hope" (I Thess. 4:13); and in all our weeping we must remember that "the fashion of this world [with all its griefs] passeth away" (I Cor. 7:31). All the causes of our sorrows will be removed, whether at home or at work or in the world, and the wicked who persecute us will not dwell in the new earth (Ps. 104:30, 35). All this applies also to weeping in marriage, brought on by quarrels with your spouse or problems with your children or sickness or death in your household. Weep as though you wept not! Do not become totally cast down so that you are unable to function. Hope in the Lord for you will yet praise Him (Ps. 42:5, 11; 43:5)!

Since "the fashion of this world passeth away" (I Cor. 7:31), we must "rejoice as though [we] rejoiced not" (30). This does not mean that joy is something sinful and shameful or that we ought not be glad in God’s good creation and ordinances. But we should know that our rejoicing in this world is temporary and can never be totally satisfying, so we should look forward to the greater, perfect, everlasting joy of heaven. Many of the causes of our joy will pass away: joys at work or school, joys on holiday or with friends, and even the joys of marriage. But these will be replaced by something even better and deeper. Rev. Stewart

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Additional Info

  • Volume: 10
  • Issue: 18
Stewart, Angus

Rev. Angust Stewart (Wife: Mary)

Ordained - 2001

Pastorates: Covenant Protestant Reformed Church of Ballymena, Northern Ireland - 2001

Website: www.cprf.co.uk/

Contact Details

  • Address
    7 Lislunnan Road
  • City
    Ballymena
  • State or Province
    Co.Antrim
  • Zip Code
    BT42 3NR
  • Country
    Ireland
  • Telephone
    (01144) 28 25 891851