This is by no means an exhaustive look at the totality of Christian marriage. I am simply highlighting a particularly important factor that every Christian married couple needs to seriously consider.
.
Christian married couples who do not submit themselves to the authority of God and His word will inevitably get to a place in their marriage where one or both of them feel that it is a loveless marriage. This is a major reason Christian divorce rates rival non-Christian divorce rates.
.
Confusing a marriage where you feel less loved with a loveless marriage is a great deception of the three great enemies of all Christians—the world (or cosmos, which means world-order—which, by the way, is fallen/sinful), the flesh (which means the old Adamic/sinful nature), and the Devil (who of course is Satan, the “temporary and limited” god of this world, the great deceiver, and accuser of true Christians).
.
When Jesus spoke, for example, to the Church of Ephesus in Revelation chapter 2 about leaving their first love, He was not saying that they were loveless. If that was what He wanted them to know, He would simply have told them so. Rather, He was reminding them of the lesser attention they were giving to their first (or foremost) love, which of course was God in Jesus Christ. They began to allow the love of other things (including self) to take priority in their lives and ministry.
.
This is why Jesus gave them the ultimatum to return to their first love or else He would come and remove their influence and thereby end their ministry. If they had no love, then it would be senseless to tell them to return to “their first love”. And we know their first love was Jesus because from the very beginning of His earthly ministry, Jesus put Himself in competition and contradistinction to all other loves anyone who wanted to be His disciple knew. For example, Luke 14:25-33 says…

25 Now large crowds were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. 27 “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 28 “For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? 29 “Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 “Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand [men] to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 “Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 “So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.

Also, was it not “the disciple whom Jesus loved”, namely the apostle John, who wrote in his first epistle (1 John 4:10), that it is not that we loved God, but that He first loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins? Surely John knew what he was talking about. And the Holy Spirit most certainly made sure that John knew precisely what to write.
.
Married Christians, please don’t fall for the world’s, the flesh’s, the Devil’s deceptions with your marriage! Don’t buy into the condemning accusations that try to take root in your mind and heart about your spouse. While there are some very rare and extenuating circumstances for divorce, you must not give in to the temptation to put asunder what has been joined by God without letting every bit of His word on the topic guide you.
.
And by the way, “what has been joined by God” first and foremost means that the marriage covenant is GOD’s established institution. From Genesis 2 with Adam and Eve to Ephesians 5 where the apostle Paul compares marriage to Christ and His Church, and all throughout Scripture, the Bible shows us the extreme importance God places on marriage.
.
Such weightiness means that God (and His word) must be the final say about what we do with our marriages. And waiting to get divorced to finally become good friends is not an option that God offers us. We must do it His way now!
.
Feeling loved less is something that happens in all relationships at some juncture or another. But let’s be honest; “Lovelessness” is usually not the real problem, especially since love is infinitely more than a feeling, and rather a commitment that if honored, will eventually produce good feelings that sometimes cannot even be explained. 1 Corinthians 13 teaches us that love is a process that is at times painstaking. Yet if committed to in the sight of God, love will grow, and it will pay dividends beyond our imagination.
.
So let’s get after it and keep after it, married saints. The testimony of Christ and His undying relationship to all His own people is at stake.
.
I pray that we all will see what I am trying to convey here, beloved. God richly bless you!

This is by no means an exhaustive look at the totality of Christian marriage. I am simply highlighting a particularly important factor that every Christian married couple needs to seriously consider.
.
Christian married couples who do not submit themselves to the authority of God and His word will inevitably get to a place in their marriage where one or both of them feel that it is a loveless marriage. This is a major reason Christian divorce rates rival non-Christian divorce rates.
.
Confusing a marriage where you feel less loved with a loveless marriage is a great deception of the three great enemies of all Christians—the world (or cosmos, which means world-order—which, by the way, is fallen/sinful), the flesh (which means the old Adamic/sinful nature), and the Devil (who of course is Satan, the “temporary and limited” god of this world, the great deceiver, and accuser of true Christians).
.
When Jesus spoke, for example, to the Church of Ephesus in Revelation chapter 2 about leaving their first love, He was not saying that they were loveless. If that was what He wanted them to know, He would simply have told them so. Rather, He was reminding them of the lesser attention they were giving to their first (or foremost) love, which of course was God in Jesus Christ. They began to allow the love of other things (including self) to take priority in their lives and ministry.
.
This is why Jesus gave them the ultimatum to return to their first love or else He would come and remove their influence and thereby end their ministry. If they had no love, then it would be senseless to tell them to return to “their first love”. And we know their first love was Jesus because from the very beginning of His earthly ministry, Jesus put Himself in competition and contradistinction to all other loves anyone who wanted to be His disciple knew. For example, Luke 14:25-33 says…

25 Now large crowds were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. 27 “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 28 “For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? 29 “Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 “Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand [men] to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 “Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 “So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.

Also, was it not “the disciple whom Jesus loved”, namely the apostle John, who wrote in his first epistle (1 John 4:10), that it is not that we loved God, but that He first loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins? Surely John knew what he was talking about. And the Holy Spirit most certainly made sure that John knew precisely what to write.
.
Married Christians, please don’t fall for the world’s, the flesh’s, the Devil’s deceptions with your marriage! Don’t buy into the condemning accusations that try to take root in your mind and heart about your spouse. While there are some very rare and extenuating circumstances for divorce, you must not give in to the temptation to put asunder what has been joined by God without letting every bit of His word on the topic guide you.
.
And by the way, “what has been joined by God” first and foremost means that the marriage covenant is GOD’s established institution. From Genesis 2 with Adam and Eve to Ephesians 5 where the apostle Paul compares marriage to Christ and His Church, and all throughout Scripture, the Bible shows us the extreme importance God places on marriage.
.
Such weightiness means that God (and His word) must be the final say about what we do with our marriages. And waiting to get divorced to finally become good friends is not an option that God offers us. We must do it His way now!
.
Feeling loved less is something that happens in all relationships at some juncture or another. But let’s be honest; “Lovelessness” is usually not the real problem, especially since love is infinitely more than a feeling, and rather a commitment that if honored, will eventually produce good feelings that sometimes cannot even be explained. 1 Corinthians 13 teaches us that love is a process that is at times painstaking. Yet if committed to in the sight of God, love will grow, and it will pay dividends beyond our imagination.
.
So let’s get after it and keep after it, married saints. The testimony of Christ and His undying relationship to all His own people is at stake.
.
I pray that we all will see what I am trying to convey here, beloved. God richly bless you!

This is by no means an exhaustive look at the totality of Christian marriage. I am simply highlighting a particularly important factor that every Christian married couple needs to seriously consider.
.
Christian married couples who do not submit themselves to the authority of God and His word will inevitably get to a place in their marriage where one or both of them feel that it is a loveless marriage. This is a major reason Christian divorce rates rival non-Christian divorce rates.
.
Confusing a marriage where you feel less loved with a loveless marriage is a great deception of the three great enemies of all Christians—the world (or cosmos, which means world-order—which, by the way, is fallen/sinful), the flesh (which means the old Adamic/sinful nature), and the Devil (who of course is Satan, the “temporary and limited” god of this world, the great deceiver, and accuser of true Christians).
.
When Jesus spoke, for example, to the Church of Ephesus in Revelation chapter 2 about leaving their first love, He was not saying that they were loveless. If that was what He wanted them to know, He would simply have told them so. Rather, He was reminding them of the lesser attention they were giving to their first (or foremost) love, which of course was God in Jesus Christ. They began to allow the love of other things (including self) to take priority in their lives and ministry.
.
This is why Jesus gave them the ultimatum to return to their first love or else He would come and remove their influence and thereby end their ministry. If they had no love, then it would be senseless to tell them to return to “their first love”. And we know their first love was Jesus because from the very beginning of His earthly ministry, Jesus put Himself in competition and contradistinction to all other loves anyone who wanted to be His disciple knew. For example, Luke 14:25-33 says…

25 Now large crowds were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. 27 “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 28 “For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? 29 “Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 “Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand [men] to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 “Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 “So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.

Also, was it not “the disciple whom Jesus loved”, namely the apostle John, who wrote in his first epistle (1 John 4:10), that it is not that we loved God, but that He first loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins? Surely John knew what he was talking about. And the Holy Spirit most certainly made sure that John knew precisely what to write.
.
Married Christians, please don’t fall for the world’s, the flesh’s, the Devil’s deceptions with your marriage! Don’t buy into the condemning accusations that try to take root in your mind and heart about your spouse. While there are some very rare and extenuating circumstances for divorce, you must not give in to the temptation to put asunder what has been joined by God without letting every bit of His word on the topic guide you.
.
And by the way, “what has been joined by God” first and foremost means that the marriage covenant is GOD’s established institution. From Genesis 2 with Adam and Eve to Ephesians 5 where the apostle Paul compares marriage to Christ and His Church, and all throughout Scripture, the Bible shows us the extreme importance God places on marriage.
.
Such weightiness means that God (and His word) must be the final say about what we do with our marriages. And waiting to get divorced to finally become good friends is not an option that God offers us. We must do it His way now!
.
Feeling loved less is something that happens in all relationships at some juncture or another. But let’s be honest; “Lovelessness” is usually not the real problem, especially since love is infinitely more than a feeling, and rather a commitment that if honored, will eventually produce good feelings that sometimes cannot even be explained. 1 Corinthians 13 teaches us that love is a process that is at times painstaking. Yet if committed to in the sight of God, love will grow, and it will pay dividends beyond our imagination.
.
So let’s get after it and keep after it, married saints. The testimony of Christ and His undying relationship to all His own people is at stake.
.
I pray that we all will see what I am trying to convey here, beloved. God richly bless you!