Living as Heirs Together

When you consider the Lord’s purpose in ordaining marriage and His design for it throughout the generations you will be prepared to find that He describes the homes of His people in rather exalted terms.

This is not to say that His word does not recognize that the reality often falls short of the divine pattern. Remember David’s confession — the words of a man to whom God had given the promise that He would “build him a house” (2 Samuel 7:11) — as he approached death: “Although my house be not so with God; yet he hath made me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he make it not to grow” (2 Samuel 23:5). However, God’s promise stands sure and despite past failures and even current shortcomings we may take God at His word and claim His covenant promise, which centers on the coming of His Son.

One of the most exalted descriptions of married life for Christians is given in 1 Peter 3:1-7. Peter gives instructions as to how husbands and wives should live “as heirs together of the grace of God” (v7).