Featured What Is the Closer Tie?

Marriage. The only relationship that is to be closer is our relationship with Jesus.

 

My bond to my wife is until death. Our bond as brother and sister in the Lord is eternal. I'll choose the latter.

 

I know this sounds all spiritual but in reality I do not see it that way. The intimacy I share with my wife is far more than anyone else. That intimacy was ordained by God in Genesis. She may not be my wife for eternity but right now my relationship with here trumps anyone else outside of God. Things will change later but in this life time my wife comes first.

 

And I am saying the closer tie right now in this life is my wife by design and by scripture.

 

The answer to your question is that it is unnecessary to pit one against the other. As far as your tear you can save it for a real issue. I base my view on scripture.

 

I go with the marriage relationship with my wife. So much of scripture uses that relationship to describe our relationship to Christ. It was the first human relationship mentioned on the pages of scripture. Our relationship will be eternal with our spouse given that they too are a believer, even though it is described to take on different qualities on the "other side".

 

God established the marriage relationship before any other relationship:

Gen 2:24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.


God said that the marriage is a picture of the relationship between Christ and the church:

Eph 5:22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
Eph 5:23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
Eph 5:24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.
Eph 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Eph 5:26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
Eph 5:27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
Eph 5:28 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
Eph 5:29 For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
Eph 5:30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
Eph 5:31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.


The marriage relationship is to be just as unified with God as any other.

 

So the question was "what is the closer tie?" The answer is it depends on how close the Windsor knot gets to the Adams apple.

 

I noticed no one mentioned mother-in-laws.

 

You question presupposes an hierarchy must be in place. There is no "superior or inferior" question to answer.

Christ loved the disciples because they were part of the church which is His bride. (He loved the church and gave Himself for it...)

As I adore My Bride, I example Christ adoring the church.

I cannot rightfully place one above the other. I cannot properly worship God as first and my wife as second. We are one flesh and united in that bond. If I were to place her as second best, I would in effect bring disrepute upon Christ. Christ prayer was eluding to this element of the union of the bride (which included the disciples as the first examples of the relationship) and the work it takes to keep the enemy from making ungodly ventures into that union of the husband and wife relationship.

Just as Christ works to bring a pure and holy bride to the presence of the father, I work to bring a pure and holy bride in worship.

One just cannot erect a hierarchy of relationships in this matter and expect to extrapolate sound Scriptural principle.

 

Its neither

 

I got a dog for my mother-in-law. It was a fair trade.

 

Very good post. The situations are apples and oranges. The Bible speaks of at least three kinds of love:

From M Malagha

Kinds of love; Eros, Philos, Agape

There are three kinds of love: eros, philos, agape.
These are three Greek words that mean love.

Eros: is the feeling of love that exists between two people.
Philos: is love in the form of friendship. When the flame of eros stops burning, it is philos that keeps a couple together.
Agape is in both eros and philos. It cannot really be discussed, it has to be lived. “Agape is the love that consumes” as if that were the phrase that best defined this strange kind of love. A Divine Love.

Martin Luther King once said that when Christ spoke of loving one’s enemies, he was referring to agape. Because according to him, it was “Impossible to like our enemies, those who were cruel to us, those who tried to make our day-to-day suffering even worse. “But agape is much more than liking. It is a feeling that suffuses, that fills every space in us, and turns aggression to dust