Setting Standard
Now, I will speak to the rest of you, though I do not have a direct command from the Lord. If a fellow believer has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to continue living with him, he must not leave her. And if a believing woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to continue living with her, she must not leave him. For the believing wife brings holiness to her marriage, and the believing husband brings holiness to his marriage. Otherwise, your children would not be holy, but now they are holy. 1 Corinthians 7:12-14
Standards have meaning in my family. My father was a tireless worker. I could count on him waking up every day before 10:00am to begin his workday. Then he would come home later in the evening to relax, work on some other items, and then go to bed. He made it clear to us this was the standard. My Mom or Dad ever told any of us this. There would be no laying around or waiting for something. Just get up and put in the work. You do not think about these things as a six-year-old or a sixteen-year-old. However, for me it began to make sense what my Dad had instilled in us because when I visited my brother who lived in Florida, I watched him do almost the exact same thing. Only he went to work at 6 in the morning and came home early in the evening. When I got my current job, I realized I was doing the same thing too. It was not a particular conversation that my parents had with me and not even an expectation that they set. It was just an inherited known entity. I was my parent’s child, and as a result, there was a certain standard that I needed to uphold.
As a follower of Christ, there are also standards that I must live by. I do not have to look at what others do, nor do I need to follow what other Christians choose to do. I have the example that was set by Christ, and those apply whether I am talking with a believer or nonbeliever. That is what stuck out to me in today’s verses. It was not about what others have chosen to do. It is my personal relationship with Christ that binds me to Him and His word.
Each day is reverence to Jesus Christ and His teachings. In reading today’s verses, Paul talks about the most sacred of relationships, marriage. While marriage is not for everyone, those who choose to be married are building a foundation of a healthy Christian relationship as Paul clearly outlined in Ephesians 5 saying:
For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. Ephesians 5:25-28
In speaking about the institution of marriage, I think of the ceremony, the coming together of families, the feelings of warmth and love, and the celebration in front of the minister and God. Those are fundamental standards of a wedding celebration and have been carried on for generations. Throughout the Bible, there are numerous references to blessings or curses that go for generations. Thus, the standards we set in our households is critical, and they have overarching value beyond just us. So, while today’s verses focus on just one aspect of our relationship with a spouse who is a non-believer, it carries through beyond just that one person.
Following Jesus Christ is a not just a moment of commitment. It is a lifestyle. It is predicated on our following through on many different things as well as learning how to be better stewards (dare I say ‘disciples’) of Jesus’s teachings. This is the standard, and whether it is in marriage, at work, or hanging out with friend who may be non-believers, Christ set the tone much like when He was speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well. Let us be more Christ-like in our relationships through both actions and words. What practices can you instill on an hourly, daily, or weekly basis to better connect with God’s teachings? How can you become more obedient to Jesus’s teachings? My prayer is that we are great stewards of the standards set forth by Christ. Amen.