Love The Perfect Binding
“Love: The Perfect Binding”
Colossians 3:14-15
14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. 15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.
Angie and Paul, I know you didn’t come here for a quiz today, but I want to ask you one question. Would you both agree that LOVE is one thing you both expect in your marriage?
I’m glad you agreed because I wasn’t sure where I would go with this homily if you said “No!” Actually everyone needs LOVE whether they expect it or not, not only in marriage, but also in every human relationship. It is love-less-ness among humans that destroys so many friendships, marriages, working relationships, and other areas of people relating to each other. You know yourselves that “Love does no harm to its neighbor.” You think it intuitively because of our human origin in the image of God. LOVE is the nature God created in mankind.
But you have maybe found it difficult to realize at times because, like all humans, we suffer from the corruption of that nature by sin. How else would you explain a nearly 50% divorce rate even among Christian people? Now there are statistics on the divorce rate among people in third and forth marriages. In view of these things, I am very jealous of those who stand before this altar to be married. I know also from God’s Word that He is very jealous of you. He is jealous in the sense that He desires you to know and live in LOVE forever. He desires that for you because He knows, being God, that without LOVE you will not have the perfect binding to keep your marriage together.
So what is this love that He wants to give you and keep you in? Is it the passive acceptance of whatever your mate does? No! Scripture says, “Love does not delight in evil.” Is it authoritarian control over your mate? No! Scripture says of Love, “It is not self-seeking.” So what is it? Angie, your friends read from the Holy Bible God’s description of Love. In Marriage, it is first of all, the binding of two people into one flesh. So I hope you will always be able to think of yourselves not as two people, though you are indeed two. But rather think of yourself as one just like God sees you in marriage. There is a mystery involved in this union that the apostle calls “profound”. And it is profound when we realize that the marriage union is the human event that most clearly demonstrates God’s union with humanity. And that is how we get the kind of Love described in Holy Scripture.
“God is Love” the apostle John writes. And then he explains that it is not that we love God, but that He loved us and showed that love to us by sending His Only Begotten Son into human flesh to dwell among us. But not only that, He also made that perfect sinless man the perfect sacrifice for sin. And it is by that sacrifice that you and I can know real Love because that sacrifice has the proper effect of making us one with God, Holy and sinless in His sight.
Thus the apostle Paul by God’s Spirit can say to those united with God in Christ through faith, “As God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.” Well there you have it: Love is God’s perfect binding for you.
My prayer for you this day is that you receive His Word of truth and make it your own. By doing so, the Love you feel for each other today can and will grow as you realize the binding you have with Jesus Christ. Amen.