When Peter inquired of the Lord how often he should forgive his brother Jesus said 77 times, not 7. In this culture, 7 was a number of completion. Obviously Peter was inferring a limit to forgiveness whereas Jesus was teaching infinite.
This German politician would like to put a limit or perhaps eliminate marriage altogether. Should we marry for 7 years or 77? I wonder why she chose 7? Was it because neither of her marriages lasted past 7 years or does she have any kind of real evidence showing marriages don't last past 7 years?
This politician brought up some interesting perspectives on marriage. She was quoted as saying ""The basic approach is wrong ... many marriages last just because people believe they are safe,". First of all she's probably basing this comment on personal experience rather than actual knowledge on the topic. It's always interesting to note what others believe and why. In this particular instance I would guess she's projecting. When I say projecting I'm referring to our tendency to take our experiences and project them onto everyone. "My marriage didn't work out, so no one's will or ever has." "It's natural to look upon a woman with lust, so therefore it's right."
We, as Christians, need to understand why we pursue relationships, specifically marriage. Do we desire marriage because it's expected, because of societies pressures, because of selfish desires or because we're lonely? Does Jesus Christ play any role at all in our decision making or are we following the path this German politician is following? If we aren't pursuing holiness in everything we do, every decision we make, then how can the unbelieving world distinguish between their world and ours, our beliefs and theirs, our God and theirs? Is there any truth in us? Are we taking 1 Corinthians 13 (concerning love) into our hearts when we make relationship oriented decisions or are we looking to Hollywood to define what love is? Honestly, I believe we look to Hollywood to define love more than anything else far more often than we care to admit. How does anything that community does or say reflect biblical values and principles? I say their definition of love can be defined not through the bible, but through sin and or immaturity or ignorance. By Hollywood's definition of love we should only get involved with people who do something for us. That is we should date or marry people who do things for us or make us feel a certain way. Now how does this match up with the Bible? (This is the part where you need to actually start reading the bible, front to back.
Oh... a brief note on romance... my definition of romance is tied up with the biblical definition of love. I believe romance is something initiated by the man which is then reciprocated by the woman. I believe it involves each person putting the other person before themselves. "I want her to feel good today, so I'll send her flowers or a poem or make her dinner or etc..." My cynical side tells me Hollywood depicts romance as nothing more than a doorway to sex.
How does John 14:15-18 (concerning the promise of the Holy Spirit & Christ's return) impact our desire or desperation for companionship? How can we find victory over our sin and insecurities? We find our identity defined through Jesus Christ as found in Matthew 3:16-17. Believing Jesus Christ died for our sins means He stands in our place and these verses depict how God now looks upon us. When considering our sin He takes into account the act of Jesus Christ upon the cross.
More verses to reference with regards to love:
1 John 4:10 and 1 John 5:3
So when asked: "Should we limit marriages to 7 years?" We should be able to then be ready to in some way or shape convey the gospel of Jesus Christ. There's no point in arguing the stupidity of this topic. This would be a distraction and a waste of time. The person asking this type of question is either completly ignorant, hard hearted or in denial and pain over past mistakes. This type of person doesn't need to be argued with, they need to be loved on and have Christ preached to them. This is why we need to know what we believe and why we need to get this distracting Hollywood crap out of our heads.
You want to be loved and desired? Look to Jesus Christ. You want to have romance in a relationship? Take the confidence He offers you through Christ to be vulnerable enough to either receive or initiate this.
