Hollywood celebrities marry, divorce and remarry faster than trash reporters can track. One TV show recently spent an hour tracing the match-ups and break-ups of celebrities -- an hour of dizzyingly confused attempts to follow as "Brent" married "Suzi" then had an affair with "Marla" who was married to "Steve" but after her affair with "Brent", divorced "Steve" to marry her acting coach, "Sidney" who used to be married to "Suzi" (back when "Brent" was married to "Alicia") only to find that "Steve" had on the side been seeing "Mark" and in the end, it was "Steve" and "Mark" who got married in San Francisco.

In Congress, attempts are made every year to settle on a legal definition of "marriage" -- something faithful not only to traditional culture but to the modern realities of financial entanglements -- with a "nod" toward those who champion a sexual "freedom of choice".

But for centuries, marriage has been a social convention but a spiritual covenant. We don't talk much about "covenants" today, but a "covenant" is a commitment between God and God's people. There can be many different kinds of "covenants", one of which is marriage. Traditionally, marriage is understood as a relationship between a man and a woman, a relationship created in covenant with their God.

Quick point: Why must the covenant of marriage be only between a "man" and a "woman"? Throughout all, biblical history, human "marriage" has been the earthly parallel to the "Heavenly" union of Jesus Christ with His "Bride" (the Church.) The marriage of Jesus Christ to His "Bride" is made "visible" in the union between a man and a woman -- not in the union between "Adam" and "Steve".

Michele and I married a number of years ago. The two of us stood in front of a minister, in front of friends and family as "witnesses" -- but more to the point we "stood" in the Presence of God. And when we "pledged our troth" (made a solemn pledge of faithfulness to each other), we were making a three-way covenant -- between Michele, me and God.

To break that covenant, Michele and I would first have to reject our relationship with God -- because it was with God and not simply ourselves that we made the marriage covenant.

Yet many people, when they stand in front of friends and family and "pledge their troth", don't even believe in God. If people don't believe in God, can they form a covenant with Him?

Of course not. If marriage is a covenant between two people and God, and there is no God -- then there is no such thing as the "covenant of marriage". If "God" does not exist, any covenant established with Him has no existence either!

Why do you suppose that more and more people in our society today, treat marriage with such deliberate and casual disregard?

Simply put -- where there is no God in the hearts of people, there is no covenant marriage. And when people live as if there is no God, they can live as if the marriage covenant has no true significance.

Where this leaves us is that the problem with the failure of marriages and families in modern society is not a failure of society; it's not a failure of cultural morality; it's certainly not a failure of religion! It's the result of a society-wide rejection of He Who is the Covenant Maker and the Covenant Keeper.

A lot of people today are quick to point out that "one person can't change society." That may be true, but then a lot of "Edisons", "Martin Luthers", "Martin Luther King, Jrs", have single-handedly changed society.

But what you can't argue with is that youcan have an impact on your own life. So, are you married? Is it a social artifice -- a covenant with "a God Who isn't there" -- or is it a covenant marriage? Even if you've already held a marriage license for years, you can still reevaluate where you and your spouse stand in covenant with God.

Yet even more than this -- whoever you are, you have influence at times over others: co-workers, relatives, neighbors, your kids, your spouse... There will be times when this issue touches your life in such a way that you can speak to it with others.

Think it through. Where do youchoose to throw your support in respect to this crisis: "marriage as a social artifice", or "marriage as a covenant"?

© 2008 by Emil B. Swift