Marriage Requires Spiritual Oneness

For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
—1 Corinthians 3:11

How do you build a strong marriage? A successful marriage requires spiritual oneness.

Imagine that you are building a new house. You have hired the architect, and the construction workers are on the site. The only problem is that each of the workers has a different set of blueprints. What would be the result? It would be absolute chaos if every worker had a different plan. The only way you are going to build a successful house is if all of the workers are using the same plan. And it is the same way in the marriage relationship–the only way to build a successful marriage is to make sure both husband and wife are using the same blueprint.

I am referring to a commitment to Jesus Christ and His Word. God’s Word is the only reliable blueprint for building a successful home, and Jesus is the only reliable foundation. First Corinthians 3:11 says, “No man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”

We see that in the first couple. Adam and Eve had a lot of ups and downs. They even, for a period of time, wandered away from God, but then they received God’s forgiveness. Adam and Eve tried to cover their sin with fig leaves, but those fig leaves were not capable of fully covering them. So God provided a garment for them (Genesis 3:21). That is a picture of what Jesus Christ, the perfect Lamb of God, would do for us. We can’t cover up our own sin–only when we receive the covering that Jesus Christ provides can we have forgiveness. And that is the sure foundation for a solid and lasting marriage. The greatest unity you can have in marriage is the unity of a common commitment to Jesus Christ.

In Matthew 7:24-27, Jesus told a story about two men who built on different foundations. He said, “Everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell–and great was its fall.”

The only foundation that will see your marriage through the inevitable storms that will come your way is a mutual commitment to obey Jesus Christ and His Word. The psalmist said it this way: “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it” (Psalm 127:1).

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Today’s devotion is excerpted from “Marriage: Vacate or Renovate?” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2009.

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.