This week, we will wrap up this series by talking about Godly commitment and how the relationships in your life – whether you are dating, engaged, married, or even with your friendships – can be healthy and holy if both people are committed to three things.
These are like the three legs of a stool that a healthy, Godly relationship sits on. If any of these legs is missing, it won’t be stable.
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
[Ephesians 5:21]
This is about humility, not authority. Humility is the glue that holds these legs in place. If you aren’t both willing to humble yourself before the needs of the other, it doesn’t have the capacity to ever become a Godly relationship.
What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you?
[James 4:1]
Our tendency is to put us first. Our tendency is to evaluate our friendships by asking, what am I getting out of it? What kind of friend or partner are they being to me?
Instead though, God wants you to ask what kind of partner/ spouse am I being to them? How do I grade my humility?
Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of
your love.
[Ephesians 4:1-2]
Where do I need to be gentler in my relationship?
Where do I need to be humbler in my relationship?
For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything. For
husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her.
[Ephesians 5:22-25]
What’s the theme here? Two people willing to put the other person before self.
Godly Commitment Is Rooted In Sacrifice
You know what separates great marriages from average marriages?
The consistent, sacrificial grind. The willingness to still sacrifice for each other, even when the honeymoon season ends, even when it’s financially tight, when stress increases, when crisis hits. That’s what you made your vows for.
“If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.”
[Matthew 16:24]
Godly Commitment Is Rooted In Transparency.
An open rebuke is better than hidden love! Wounds from a sincere friend are better than many kisses from an enemy.
[Proverbs 27:5-6]
The heartfelt counsel of a friend is as sweet as perfume and incense.
[Proverbs 27:10]
“Unsafe people think they have it all together instead of admitting their weaknesses.” [Safe People, Henry Cloud]
Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.
[James 5:16]
Godly Commitment Is Rooted In Forgiveness
Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?”“No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!
[Matthew 18:21-22]
Love prospers when a fault is forgiven, but dwelling on it separates close friends.
[Proverbs 17:9]
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Application Questions
- What stood out to you from this message and why?
- What is one thing God is telling you to START doing because of this message?
- What is one thing God is telling you to STOP doing because of this message?
- How will this message change how you act at home, work and in the your relationships?