By the Way: What if the whole world lived according to God’s holy law?
By Medicine Hat News on August 4, 2018.
It’s wedding season and I got to preside at one the weekend before last. I love weddings. I get a wonderful close up view of the bride and groom as they make their vows while all the hope, joy, love, nervousness and vulnerability involved plays across their faces. It’s lovely. And a full church always feels good. I also love the rich symbolism in the profound commitment the couple are making — the solemn vows, the joining of hands, the giving and receiving of rings — all in the presence of Jesus Christ, the great Bridegroom. The gravity is fitting since, in fact, marriage was instituted as an integral part of all creation in the second chapter of the whole Bible. It is something for which the world was made, just as novelist EM Forster so aptly put it. Marriage also continues to serve as a key component of God’s grand ongoing Salvation narrative through Jesus Christ who is the archetypal Bridegroom, united with his Bride, the Church. So it’s no wonder that when the bride and groom promise to love, comfort, honour and protect each other, forsaking all others and make their mutual solemn vows to have and to hold, for better, for worse, and so on, for the rest of their lives, that they do so “according to God’s holy law.” It’s easy to breeze past those words as we enjoy the occasion and warm feelings associated with our affection for the couple and their love for each other. But if marriage is something for which the world was made and is, as the Anglican rite says, a gift of God and a means of his grace which represents and points to the spiritual unity between Christ and his Church, then there will be holiness and definite parameters involved. What is God’s holy law? The Ten Commandments is a good place to start (look them up: see Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5). Not a bad formula for a good, long, fruitful, life-giving marriage (or friendship, or business, or any other relationship): let the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ be your God, no idols, do not misuse God’s name, keep the Sabbath as a family day, honour your folks the way you’d like your kids to honour you, no murder or adultery, or stealing, no lying or false tales and no coveting, especially your neighbour’s, or anyone else’s, husband or wife. Think about it. What would be the effect on marriage and family life if we lived according to those 10 clear and simple standards? What would be the effect on our whole society and culture if we all just lived “according to God’s holy law?” There would be much less harm, betrayal, grief and mayhem in the world and in our families for one thing. I’d like to think the churches would be joyfully full, too, and not just for funerals and weddings. By the Rev Canon Gene Packwood (Gene blogs at GENEralities kiwirev.blogspot.ca and can be found on Facebook and Twitter) 7-6
