Friday, July 27, 2007
"You shall not commit adultery" (Exodus 20:14).
"You have no so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, putting away lying, 'Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,' for we are members of one another. 'Be angry, and do not sin': Do not let the sun go down on your wrath" (Ephesians 4:20-26).
IDEA: We move toward intimacy in marriage when we learn how to handle disagreements in marriage.
PURPOSE: To help listeners think of disagreements in marriage not as impediments to intimacy but as pathways to intimacy.
Several years ago a cartoon in the New Yorker magazine showed a husband and wife standing nose to nose, having an argument with each other. The wife said to the husband, “You’re absolutely right, Charles. No one is perfect, especially you.”
Have you ever thought that about your own marriage? No marriage is perfect, especially ours.
I. Conflicts are an important part of a Christian marriage.
Where do our disagreements in a marriage come from?
If you take two people from different backgrounds, different emotional reactions to life and put them together, they are bound to disagree.
If two people live together and they don’t disagree, then one of them is unnecessary.
The question is not, will there be differences in a Christian marriage? It is how we handle our disagreements.
II. Ephesians 4:25-31 gives us some workable leads on dealing with conflict.
It states: "Therefore, putting away lying, let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. 'Be angry and do not sin': do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice."
What is the first word in Ephesians 4:25? “Therefore” takes us back into the immediate context, vv. 20-24.
These are not commands but assertions of what is true of us as Christians. Paul is saying, “We are not the people we used to be. Therefore we can no longer handle life as we used to handle it. We are new people in Christ.”
This whole new way of life that we’ve entered as Christians demands a whole new way of thinking and living.
Paul applies this to communication: he is talking primarily of how Christians should relate to one another in a congregation, but what he says applies equally well to Christians living together in a family.
The basic aim of our relationship should be to live with each other in honesty and integrity, Ephesians 4:25-26.