The sixth of the seven “C’s” of marriage is covenant. In order to understand covenant we must understand the difference between that and a contract. A contract is normally a legally binding document that is generally written in such a way as to provide for all the possible loopholes to get out of it – legally.
On the other hand, a covenant is very different. It is a unilateral commitment that is binding independent of what the other party does or does not do.
How different these two concepts are! And how far away we have gotten from the covenant model of marriage. Even though most marriage vows include the words, “Until death do us part,” the average bride and/or groom has in the back of their mind, the thought, “Until you do something for which I feel justified in leaving you.”
In a Christian marriage, the concept of covenant is fundamental. It is based on the Biblical concept of agape love…unconditional love modeled after the love God has for us. God’s love for each of us does not depend upon our love for Him. It never has and never will. And that is the model upon which covenant marriage is based. It is a love that mere humans are incapable of apart from the grace and enabling of the God who is “love.”
Our culture has taken us so far away from that model that most couples even if they are Christian, only give lip service to the idea of covenant. And when the going gets tough, as it inevitably will, all that our culture has taught us about having the right to be happy, etc, prevails over the fundamental principles of covenant. A covenant is a type of vow and it is something that God takes very, very seriously. Ecclesiastes 5:5 says, “It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it.”
So as we go into marriage, if we are serious about covenant, we must be willing to weather all the storms that will come against us as a couple and we must be willing to stand together to defend each other and the covenant we make “until death do us part.” And let’s really mean it.
For information on premarital education you can do from your home check out the new Marriage 101 Online course.
