My Father Is The Gardener
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.”
John 15:1, New International Version (NIV)
Topiary is the horticultural practice of clipping foliage and twigs of trees and shrubs to develop and maintain clearly defined shapes, whether geometric or fanciful. In order to accomplish the most complex designs, a wire form is constructed in the ultimate desired shape for the plant. After that, the gardener will periodically prune and clip the plant to ensure it fulfills his desire and design.
Like the topiary frame, the following tenets or principals of Christian marriage provide us a framework of how our marriages should be conforming to God’s overall design for our marriage.
Seven Tenets for a Christian Marriage
1. Your relationship with God is the foundation of your marriage.
For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 3:11, NIV
2. Your marriage should mirror the relationship between Christ and the Church in that the Covenant of Marriage requires us to give ourselves to our spouses without reservation.
Husbands love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.
Ephesians 5:25, NIV
3. God intends for each couple to have a fruitful, meaningful, and joyful marriage as both spouses live a life of sacrificial love (agape love).
Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.
Romans 12:10, NIV
4. God designed marriage as the crucible in preparing His children for eternal purposes by ensuring that we become Christ-like through learning, discipline, and overcoming adversity.
Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.
Hebrews 13:4, NIV
5. As you move closer to each other in harmony (oneness), you move closer to God; as you move closer to God, you move closer in harmony with your spouse.
…until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Ephesians 4:13, NIV
6. A Christian marriage finds its life, purpose, and meaning by living within the Kingdom of God and living counter to cultural norms.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 12:2, NIV
7. God hates divorce and always desires to give hope and help to those who are having difficulties in their marriage.
Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning.
Matthew 19:8, NIV
Note: Although only one scripture is listed for each tenet, there are many more. You are encouraged to identify them in your study and reading of the Bible.
