The Ten Commandments also teach Christians many lessons about personal relationships. They teach us to honor and respect our neighbors and their families and their possessions. They also showed us the rules they must follow to honor and love their neighbour and their God: Exodus20 13 "You shall not murder. 14 "You shall not commit adultery. 16 "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. 17 "You shall not covet your neighbor's house or wife."
An example from life, where Christians should follow the Sermon on the Mount, is in the case of lying. Lies can be small or big, but it is always important to forgive others, and to allow them to learn from their mistakes. In the same way and for the same reasons we should never hold grudges and never be unkind.
AO2
A Christian couple should always follow these beliefs and guidelines if they are to have a pure and successful relationship with themselves and with God. But in the particular case of marriage, Christians must take extra care.
Throughout the course of a Christian couples marriage they should always be forgiving, in the way that they forgive their partner for any mistakes that he or she may make. This is important because, marriage is about self-sacrifice. This means that Christians in a relationship should be willing to sacrifice for their partner. Whether this is something physical or something deeper, Christians must always show forgiveness, and never hold grudges.
For Christians, marriage also stands for service, in the way that Christians in a relationship should always give themselves to their partner and always help one another when they are in need. Marriage also stands for faithfulness and exclusivity. This means that a married couple should be forever truthful, honest and have purity of heart, always telling the truth and being loyal.
Marriage stand for permanence, again in the way of self-sacrifice and service, but also in the way that a marriage is a life-long commitment of one partner to another, in the way that Jesus talked about love and devotion in the bible:
1 Corinthians13 4"Love is patient; love is kind. Love is not jealous, it does not put on airs, it is not snobbish. 5Love is never rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not prone to anger; neither does it brood over injuries. 6Love does not rejoice in what is wrong but rejoices with the truth."
There are many situations in which hardships occur for Christians in a relationship. Adultery is the main problem. In the situation of adultery is when the roles of forgiveness and reconciliation are very important. No matter how bad the situation is, Christians must always forgive. They must allow their partner to reconcile with them and to learn from their mistakes. Unfortunately, adultery is very serious, and most Christians today find it extremely hard, if not impossible to give. Most marriages would fail after adultery today, as I’m sure they would have in the past. The couple would only stay together under very rare circumstances (e.g. for their children or for money).
In the situation of a temptation to enter an affair, the roles of purity of heart and the 6th Commandment are most important:
Exodus20 14"You shall not commit adultery."
Purity of heart is very important, where the Christian must be faithful and try to keep their heart pure from temptation and evil.
In a situation of serious illness, where a loved one or partner is very ill, Christians must show great service and self-sacrifice to show their love and devotion, not only to their loved one but also to the Lord. This can be done by being there when a loved one is in need, and looking after them as best you can, as you would for the Lord.
The final situation also requires the same self-sacrifice and self-service. In the case of bad financial problems or the birth of a disabled child, Christians must stay faithful and loyal to their partner to help fight these hardships.
A03
"Lifelong marriage is too difficult even for Christians today. The church should be willing to drop this vow."
I do not agree with this statement, because marriage is a sign of life-long commitment.
The other point of view is that marriage is so hard to devote to, and takes so much of a person's life away from them, that even the strictest Christians may find it hard to have a life-long marriage. I personally do not believe this is a valid argument, simply because marriage is a sacrament of permanence.
In the Catholic Church only the death of a partner or an annulment allows the ending of a marriage. In the Christian tradition, marriage is a life-long and life-giving relationship between two people and is based on Jesus' teaching of the permanence of marriage.
Marriage is a sacrament of permanence, exclusivity and faithfulness; therefore it cannot just be ended for no good reason. Marriage requires such love and devotion from the start, that a marriage should never be broken for any reason. In the Bible, Jesus and his disciples have taught us many things about love and its power of endurance and devotion:
1 Corinthians13 3"If I give everything I have to feed the poor and hand over my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 7There is no limit to love's forbearance, to its trust, its hope, its power to endure. 13There are in the end three things that last: faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love."
The sacrament of marriage should never be forsaken and therefore the couple should never have any reason to separate in the first place. But even if it does come to that, by marrying the couple agreed to a lifelong relationship, which was made on Holy grounds. It doesn’t matter how difficult the marriage gets, the couple must stick to the vows they made and avoid separating always.
