By David ReayFriday 4 Nov 2022LifeWords DevotionalsDevotionsReading Time: 1 minute
So again, I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. (NLT)
If one partner in a marriage says they have been faithful to their partner, they often mean they haven’t gone off and had an affair with a third party. Being unfaithful thus comes to mean not getting sexually or deeply emotionally involved with another person. All well and good.
But faithfulness in marriage, or perhaps in other relationships, involves far more than that. Abstinence from an affair is one aspect, positive commitment to the partner’s good is another aspect. A man may rigorously steer clear of other entangling alliances and yet treat his wife with disdain or emotional neglect. A woman may not have dalliances with other men and yet keep a cool distance from her husband.
Faithfulness is more than avoiding what is bad or harmful. It is embracing what is good and encouraging. Neither partner can take pride in merely abstaining from impropriety. There can develop in some marriages a coldly correct formality which masquerades as faithfulness.
Any life, any relationship, that is built mainly on not tasting the forbidden fruit, is a shrunken life and a sterile relationship. By all means flee from what is wrong, but true faithfulness will have us eagerly pursue what is right.
Blessings
David