Galatians 5:25
An analogy for a godly marriage. (This is just another way of explaining something you’ve probably heard before.)
If you and your spouse are both Christians, you have Jesus in common—God stands in between you. Imagine you’re in a marching band/military parade block. If you know anything about marching/walking in step with someone, you know that it works best if you follow the person right next to you, not the person two rows over (especially if you’re only using your peripheral vision, like you’re supposed to in marching band).
(This analogy will be split into two versions: the version specialized for my fellow band geeks, and the version better understood by everyone else.)
First, the band geek version. You, Jesus, and your spouse are in line. God is your center dress point. Like we’ve all been told about dressing to the center, the center is always right, even if he/she is wrong. Well, God is always right. Period. If you’re out of line with Him, there’s very little chance that you will be in line with your spouse. (And even if you do somehow end up in line with your spouse, it won’t last for long.) So if you both dress to God, you will be better in line with each other than if you tried to dress to each other around God. (Peripheral vision isn’t that good.)
Now for everyone else (even though you may have gotten the point already if you read the first version). You’re walking in line with your spouse, with God in between you, and you’re trying to stay in step with each other. If you want to be in step with your spouse, but you can’t turn your head side-to-side (for the sake of the analogy), what’s the best way to stay in step? Watching Jesus, right? You can easily see His feet moving next to you, and so can your spouse. So even though you can’t see your spouse’s feet moving in time with yours, by watching Christ, you will stay in step, not only with God, but with your spouse as well. But if you try to follow your spouse’s feet, you’ll get into all kinds of trouble, failing to stay in step with each other (except for the rare occasions) and with God. So if you “keep in step with the Spirit,” you will also keep in step with your spouse much better than you would if you only tried to stay in step with your spouse and not with Christ.
In a non-Christian marriage, Jesus doesn’t stand between the couple. You may think that’s a good thing because then the couple can just watch each other, but it’s not. For all of you who don’t have a clue what any of the band geek version meant, the center is the person everyone in that line looks to in order to stay in line. If you can’t see the center out of the corner of your eye, than you look at the person next to you and trust that he/she is in line with the center (or whoever is between him/her and the center, who should also be in line with the center), making a straight line. The center is always right, even if they’re in the wrong place. As long as you stay in line with the center, it’ll look like you’re right. God is the perfect Center. He is never wrong. He is always in the right place, so if you follow Him, you will be in the right place too. But if you take God out of the picture, you no longer have a perfect Center. You and your spouse are left looking at each other in all your imperfection. One of you is bound to be wrong at some point, and even if the line follows you and makes the formation look right, the whole line will be wrong because you are wrong. With God out of the picture, your imperfect center is bound to ruin the formation at some point. But with God as your perfect Center (as long as you and your spouse both keep your eyes fixed on Him), your marriage will be more blessed than you could hope.
The moral: Love God before your spouse, and you will show your love to your spouse in a much more meaningful way than possible otherwise.
An analogy for a godly marriage. (This is just another way of explaining something you’ve probably heard before.)
If you and your spouse are both Christians, you have Jesus in common—God stands in between you. Imagine you’re in a marching band/military parade block. If you know anything about marching/walking in step with someone, you know that it works best if you follow the person right next to you, not the person two rows over (especially if you’re only using your peripheral vision, like you’re supposed to in marching band).
(This analogy will be split into two versions: the version specialized for my fellow band geeks, and the version better understood by everyone else.)
First, the band geek version. You, Jesus, and your spouse are in line. God is your center dress point. Like we’ve all been told about dressing to the center, the center is always right, even if he/she is wrong. Well, God is always right. Period. If you’re out of line with Him, there’s very little chance that you will be in line with your spouse. (And even if you do somehow end up in line with your spouse, it won’t last for long.) So if you both dress to God, you will be better in line with each other than if you tried to dress to each other around God. (Peripheral vision isn’t that good.)
Now for everyone else (even though you may have gotten the point already if you read the first version). You’re walking in line with your spouse, with God in between you, and you’re trying to stay in step with each other. If you want to be in step with your spouse, but you can’t turn your head side-to-side (for the sake of the analogy), what’s the best way to stay in step? Watching Jesus, right? You can easily see His feet moving next to you, and so can your spouse. So even though you can’t see your spouse’s feet moving in time with yours, by watching Christ, you will stay in step, not only with God, but with your spouse as well. But if you try to follow your spouse’s feet, you’ll get into all kinds of trouble, failing to stay in step with each other (except for the rare occasions) and with God. So if you “keep in step with the Spirit,” you will also keep in step with your spouse much better than you would if you only tried to stay in step with your spouse and not with Christ.
In a non-Christian marriage, Jesus doesn’t stand between the couple. You may think that’s a good thing because then the couple can just watch each other, but it’s not. For all of you who don’t have a clue what any of the band geek version meant, the center is the person everyone in that line looks to in order to stay in line. If you can’t see the center out of the corner of your eye, than you look at the person next to you and trust that he/she is in line with the center (or whoever is between him/her and the center, who should also be in line with the center), making a straight line. The center is always right, even if they’re in the wrong place. As long as you stay in line with the center, it’ll look like you’re right. God is the perfect Center. He is never wrong. He is always in the right place, so if you follow Him, you will be in the right place too. But if you take God out of the picture, you no longer have a perfect Center. You and your spouse are left looking at each other in all your imperfection. One of you is bound to be wrong at some point, and even if the line follows you and makes the formation look right, the whole line will be wrong because you are wrong. With God out of the picture, your imperfect center is bound to ruin the formation at some point. But with God as your perfect Center (as long as you and your spouse both keep your eyes fixed on Him), your marriage will be more blessed than you could hope.
The moral: Love God before your spouse, and you will show your love to your spouse in a much more meaningful way than possible otherwise.
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