Pastors, Invest in Your Marriage!

Photo by Sandy Millar on Unsplash

Pastor, beware! Your enemy, the devil, hates the gospel and seeks to weaken churches by weakening their pastors. His go-to tactic is to damage the pastor as Peter says he, "prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." Certainly he seeks to devour pastors' marriages. It's because the elder is called to shepherd God's flock, entrusted with the precious treasure of the gospel, portrayed vividly in the marriage of Christ to His bride in covenant faithfulness. The elder shepherds the flock - by teaching, leading, feeding, and equipping them - both by preaching the word and by living as an example in his own marriage covenant with his wife.

If the lion succeeds, devouring the elder's marriage with discontentment, harshness, resentment, coldness, passions of the flesh, infidelity or divorce, he will certainly weaken the faith of many in the flock, and he will weaken the church's witness to the world. If he strikes down the shepherd and his marriage, certainly he will scatter the sheep. The faithful shepherd knows this and heeds Peter's commands concerning the devouring lion: "be sober-minded, be watchful," and "resist him, firm in your faith." The pastor who does this keeps a close watch on himself and his teaching through the example of his marriage; in doing so, he will save himself and his hearers.

The husband of one wife, managing his own household well, loving his wife as Christ loved the church, the faithful elder teaches by example that marriage must be "held in honor among all and the marriage bed be undefiled." As a result, he equips the church to believe God's promise, "I will never leave you nor forsake you," confidently saying, "the Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?"

The elder who does this well first looks to himself, together with his bride, humbly honoring God in their own marriage. He heeds Peter's charge to, "live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered” (1 Peter 3:7).

The GDAB aims to help you invest in your marriage at the GDAB Marriage Retreat August 28-29 at Valor Haven in Lewisburg. Please join us to stand firm against the devil and strengthen your marriage for God’s glory.

Register at gdab.org/rsvp.