Paul Tripp answers the question, “How should the Great Commission affect marriage?”
He says, “You really don’t get why God puts this significant, everyday, comprehensive, demanding relationship right in the middle of everything He’s called me to do, unless you understand that they’re all just one in the same. So, in marriage God is making me a disciple through marriage, because marriage exposes my need of grace. If you want your heart revealed get married. If you want it further revealed have children. If you want even further revelation get an untrained pet.
Let’s take marriage for example, my whole approach to marriage is the Gospel, because I’ve got to understand that marriage is about a flawed person living next to a flawed person in a fallen world, but with a faithful God. So, I can’t look to my husband or wife to be my own personal messiah. No one is ever married to the fourth member of the trinity. There’s three seats and they’re well taken. So, I can’t ask for my husband or wife to give me identity, or meaning and purpose, or inner sense of well being. The minute I do that I put a pressure on my marriage that it can’t bare. Thousands of couples are doing that.
I’ve heard a hundred wives say, ‘All I ever wanted was a man who would make me happy.’ Oh my goodness! He should love you, but if you’re looking at that man to be the source of your happiness you’re in big trouble, because he’s a flawed human being. So, you can’t understand marriage without the Gospel, without the Great Commission.”
This is part of a series by Verge Network called The Missional Marriage.
For more information and additional resources by Paul Tripp, please visit paultrippministries.com. Also, check out his book “What did You Expect?” for more great content on marriage.
