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ORIGINAL: pbaribeault

I'm not sure what is implied by the terminology of the covenant marriage or the covenant spouse. Anybody who has a spouse has a covenant with them.

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ORIGINAL: SealedEternal
Since it is for life, the first marriage is still valid for as long as the two who made it live. All subsequent covenants while the spouse lives are therefore invalid since the person making it is not eligible to marry.SealedEternal

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ORIGINAL: DenimDiva

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ORIGINAL: SealedEternal
Since it is for life, the first marriage is still valid for as long as the two who made it live. All subsequent covenants while the spouse lives are therefore invalid since the person making it is not eligible to marry.SealedEternal

We are also a new creation in Christ, so wouldn't that mean that our former lives are done and over with? Our sins are washed away.

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ORIGINAL: DenimDiva

So even if God did not bring a couple together, He still considers their union to be a covenant?

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ORIGINAL: LoyalFriend

It's too complex to say that only the first person you marry is your covenant.

If never married Shannon marries Billie who is divorced then Billie only has a covenant with his ex wife. So Billie divorces Shannon who was never married before him and returns to his exwife who is his covenant wife. Now Shannon who has no covenant with Billie goes out and marries Rick who has never been married before. Do Shannon and Billie have a covenant or not or need to divorce too? Get's confusing and God isn't the author of confusion.

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ORIGINAL: SealedEternal

According to scripture it is the first, because God joins it for life:

Malachi 2:13 "This is another thing you do: you cover the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping and with groaning, because He no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. 14 "Yet you say, 'For what reason?' Because the LORD has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. 15 "But not one has done so who has a remnant of the Spirit And what did that one do while he was seeking a godly offspring? Take heed then to your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of your youth. 16 "For I hate divorce," says the LORD, the God of Israel, "and him who covers his garment with wrong," says the LORD of hosts. "So take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously." 17 You have wearied the LORD with your words Yet you say, "How have we wearied Him?" In that you say, "Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and He delights in them," or, "Where is the God of justice?"

The man is told that his first wife is still his wife by covenant even after he divorced her. This is because the marriage covenant is joined by God, who is the author of marriage, and lasts for as long as the two who made it live:

Genesis 2:21-24 So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. The man said, "This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man." For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.

Matthew 19:4-6 And He answered and said, "Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE, and said, 'FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH'? "So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate."

Mark 10: 6-12 "But from the beginning of creation, God MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE. "FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH; so they are no longer two, but one flesh. "What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate." In the house the disciples began questioning Him about this again. And He *said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her; and if she herself divorces her husband and marries another man, she is committing adultery."

Ephesians 5:22-33 Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body. FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.

Romans 7:2 For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.

1 Corinthians 7:39 A wife is bound as long as her husband lives; but if her husband is dead, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.

Since it is for life, the first marriage is still valid for as long as the two who made it live. All subsequent covenants while the spouse lives are therefore invalid since the person making it is not eligible to marry.

Luke 16:18 "Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries one who is divorced from a husband commits adultery.”



SealedEternal

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ORIGINAL: amyk

If one person or both break a covenant, then I am not sure that covenant is still valid. If you break a contract, does that render the contract null and void?

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ORIGINAL: DenimDiva

I don't understand how two atheists can get married and have some claim that they were put together by God. That doesn't seem like a covenant, it seems more like a contract.

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The only way to break a covenant that is for life is to die. If anything other than death could end a marriage covenant then it isn't a lifelong covenant by definition, but scripture says that it is.

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ORIGINAL: amyk

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The only way to break a covenant that is for life is to die. If anything other than death could end a marriage covenant then it isn't a lifelong covenant by definition, but scripture says that it is.

But if you don't do what you promised you would do, haven't you broken the covenant? I'm not saying that every time you fail to love your spouse you should get divorced, but in effect, have you broken the marriage covenant if you fail to love, honor, cherish, etc (whatever you vowed to do) your spouse?

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If one person or both break a covenant, then I am not sure that covenant is still valid. If you break a contract, does that render the contract null and void? God Himself instituted a new covenant for believers, rendering the old one obsolete. So I am not convinced that once in a "covenant marriage" it means that the covenant will never ever be broken for any reason.

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ORIGINAL: GregandJenny

This makes me think of a few weddings I have been to. when people are making a covenant for each other, my question is how long is it supposed to last? Many people now of days aren't going into marriage with the notion of it being forever.


G