In light of the passing of Ravi Zacharias this past week, I wanted to share something he wrote years ago that impacted my life. It wasn’t on the subject of Apologetics, for which he is most well known around the world and through which God also used to help anchor me in the Christian faith. Rather, it was on love and marriage. The following two quotes helped me (and now hopefully you also) to adjust my expectations for what a God-honoring, loving marriage could look like and be about.

To set the stage for the first quote, we need to remember that, as followers of Jesus, we are all called to reflect the nature of God in all areas of our lives – so that He will receive the attention and awe that He alone deserves (1 Corinthians 10:31). One of the best ways we can do this is through our marriages (see Ephesians 5:32).

“Don’t be deceived by the flutter of the heart. Love is a commitment that will be tested in the most vulnerable areas of spirituality, a commitment that will force you to make some very difficult choices. It is a commitment that demands that you deal with your lust, your greed, your pride, your power, your desire to control, your temper, your patience, and every area of temptation that the Bible so clearly talks about. It demands the quality of commitment that Jesus demonstrates in his relationship to us.”

When we make the difficult choices to set aside our own comfort or desires so that we could deal seriously with the sinful desires or behaviors that reveal themselves through our marriage, we are worshipping God. We do this by our obedience and by creating an illustration for others to see how God is sacrificially committed to us. Paul reveals to us (Romans 12:1-2) that when we make these kinds of sacrifices we are actually worshipping him; and that the result of this is the ability to more clearly discern his will. This leads us to the second quote by Ravi…

“Marriage is the harmony of God synchronizing two wills with the will of the Father.”

What a beautiful display of God’s gloriousness and nature when a married couple is engaging in the process of being united into one both BY and FOR their greater alignment with God and his will!

So, please ask yourself these two questions.

First, how well does your marriage reflect the kind of self-sacrificing commitment that Jesus shows toward us?

Second, how well does your marriage display the synchronizing of your two lives together with that of our Father God?

These quotes of Ravi Zacharias’ can help us better understand how our marriages can contribute to the work that God is doing in, through, and around us!