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How to Be Married 50 Years And Love It!
Excerpt
The Fruit of Marriage
In the natural, the fruit from a
fruit tree or vine contains the
seed for the next generation as well as the food for the
season. Likewise, a godly marriage bears fruit or food for
the marriage itself and for others to partake, but also seed for the next season or generation, not just their
children but people they influence.
As they exemplify a godly and holy
marriage, that seed
is planted into other couples to strengthen their marriages. The Kingdom of God is based on
multiplication, not addition. If each godly married couple would plant that seed in just two other couples, in turn
who would influence two others, think how this would multiply. They pass on the life of Christ that works
within their marriage. This would bring forth much fruit
in the world.
Fruit is not saving souls,
for only God can save. The fruit
we bear is the manifestation of the nature and character of Jesus Christ within us. A seed can produce
only what it is. If you plant the seed from a Jonathan apple tree, it will bear apples as the inherent nature of
the tree. The apples will look like Jonathan,
taste like a Jonathan, cook like Jonathan and even spoil
just like Jonathan. Furthermore, the seed contained
within that apple will produce, not a peach tree or even
another variety of apples, but a Jonathan apple tree.
.Applying the same truth, from the pure seed of Christ
within a born again believer, that person can manifest
only the nature of
Christ.
Jesus said, "...for the tree is
known by his fruit" (Matt. 12:33). You know a Jonathan apple tree, not by its bark
or leaves, but by the fruit it bears. Furthermore, you do not declare who you are, that you are a Christian. Others
do. How? By the fruit you bear. The mark of a Christian is not how many spiritual gifts he manifests. Remember
that gifts are given but fruit must be grown.
So the fruit of a marriage is the
manifestation of Christ in that marriage. Yet we may find some children of
godly parents separating from their spouse. What went wrong? It was not the seed, for the seed of Christ is
perfect. Something choked the Word and example set by the parents. What was it? It wasn't the devil, but was the
cares of this world (Matt. 13:22). These cares of the world can take on may forms to destroy a godly
marriage.
In order to produce life, a death
must take place. Jesus made a
profound statement in John 12:24, KJV, "Verily,verily,I say unto you. Except a corn of wheat fall
into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." Here He spoke of Himself,
not just His death, burial and resurrection,
but the production of fruit in the many-membered body
of Christ, fruit that contains that seed of Christ
for the next generation. The "eth" from the word "bringeth"
in the King James Version refers to continuous action.
That is, that ":Christ seed" will continue to bear fruit
for generations to come.
Similarly, death must precede resurrection, a
basic principle of plants and the spiritual life of man. We were
crucified with Christ; we died with Him and rose again with Him (Rom. 6:6-8; Gal. 2:20). In the same way, in a
godly marriage each partner has to die to self. A seed planted in the
ground must die and lose its identity as a
seed to become the embryo for the new life and new generation.
Likewise in a marriage, each
partner must die to his or her
own identity as a single person in order that it may produce life in the marriage. On the other hand, when
both husband and wife strive to do their own thing, demanding their own rights in the marriage, you end up
with nothing but strife. But when they give up their
own identity, they become one. The
fruit matures in such a marriage, bringing forth a new entity, a new life, a
life that in turn gives of its fruit to other
couples to partake. Furthermore, the fruit that they pass on (the manifestation of the life of Christ in their
marriage)
contains the seed for
the following "generation," that is, their own children or
other married couples.
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