August 10, 2018 Brethren Letter
Dear Brethren,
I was talking with a person today who mentioned they had been married to their spouse for over 30 years. I also mentioned that my wife and I had been happily married for over 43 years. We agreed that both 30 and 43 were excellent milestones for any marriage! I later thought back to a sermonette I once heard at the Feast of Tabernacles. The elder giving the sermonette was a man in his seventies. He and his wife had been married for over 50 years, as I remember. During his sermonette he made a comment that I’ll always remember. He said (paraphrased), “I told my wife that our marriage was like riding in a carriage. There have been a few bumps in the road along the way, but, our being together in life has been such a sweet ride.”
At our place of business, we’re often asked, “How can a husband and a wife work together in the same business, day after day?” One lady told me she would be ringing her husband’s neck if she were around him that much. Well, for many years my wife and I have worked together full-time with just a couple of feet between our chairs. Yes, there have been a few bumps in the road, because we’re human. But, being together in life has been such a sweet ride!
Some years ago, I was looking for information written by Mr. Armstrong on a certain subject. As I was searching, I found a letter Mr. Armstrong had written to the Ambassador College students in 1963. In his letter, he addressed the students about the subject of dating and marriage.
Today, probably what Mr. Armstrong wrote would be considered old-fashioned or out-of-date. In fact, I had a Church member once tell me that Mr. Armstrong’s view of marriage was simply antiquated. But, the fact is, what Mr. Armstrong said was CORRECT, even if that person disagreed. Every marriage should be based on the GIVE principle, and not the self-centered GET way. A marriage based on GET could end up throwing the couple right off the “carriage” because they were just too selfish to handle a few “bumps in the road”! Remember, physical marriage is a TYPE of our spiritual marriage to Jesus Christ. That’s how important marriage is to God the Father and to Jesus Christ!
(21) Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.
(22) Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. (23) For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. (24) As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands. (25) Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, (26) that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, (27) that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. (28) Even so husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. (29) For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the church, (30) because we are members of his body. (31) “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” (32) This mystery is a profound one, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church; (33) however, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband (Ephesians 5:21-33).
Those words are the foundational principles upon which God intended that our marriages be built!
Please have a wonderful Sabbath!
Your Brother in Christ,
Gary Liebold