A Covenant, Not a Contract
“Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.”Malachi 2:14 (KJV)
A contract says: I will hold up my end as long as you hold up yours. If you stop making me happy, the deal is off. That is how a lot of people see marriage.
God speaks of marriage differently. Through Malachi he says, “the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth… yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.” A covenant is a promise made before God, not a deal that ends when it stops paying.
That changes what marriage is for. It isn’t only meant to make you happy. It is meant to make you holy. Two people who rub against each other’s rough edges, and slowly get shaped. “Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.”
Sharpening isn’t always comfortable. Sparks fly. But if you see your marriage as a covenant, the hard seasons stop being reasons to leave and start being places God is shaping you both.
Read it yourself
Read Malachi 2:13–16. What does God say he hates in verse 16?
Do you treat your marriage more like a contract or a covenant?
Lord, you witnessed our covenant. Use our marriage to make us holy, even in the hard seasons. Amen.