The Love and Commitment of Marriage
Pastor Tan Thai · Feb 10, 2015
This Valentine's Day sermon explores marital love from a biblical perspective, affirming that God Himself is the source of all love. The pastor guides the congregation on how to cultivate love in marriage through mutual respect, words of affirmation, quality time together, and serving God as a couple.
The sermon opens by establishing that love is the most universal theme in literature and art, and more importantly, that God Himself is the source of all love. The pastor draws from John 3:16, John 13:34-35, 1 Corinthians 13, and 1 John 4:7-8 to demonstrate that love is not merely a human emotion but the very nature of God. The Apostle John repeatedly commands believers to love one another because when love grows cold, the heart becomes barren, hardened, and bitter.
The second section addresses marriage as the most concrete and sincere expression of love. The pastor recounts the Vietnamese historical legend of Trọng Thủy and Mỵ Châu as an illustration of love wounded by betrayal. He also quotes Vietnamese folk poetry to show the natural human longing for marriage. Scripture confirms that God instituted marriage from the very beginning: Eve was created from Adam's rib — not from dust — to signify equality, closeness, and tender love between husband and wife. First Peter 3:7 is cited to remind husbands to honor their wives as the weaker vessel and as co-heirs of the grace of life.
The third section focuses on four practical ways to cultivate love in marriage. The first is mutual respect — marriage cannot endure without it, and respect must be demonstrated before children, extended family, and friends. The second is encouragement, praise, and gratitude — the pastor quotes Song of Solomon 4:1, 10-11 and Proverbs 31 to show that sincere words of affirmation build confidence and nourish love.
The third practice is intentionally spending quality time together for conversation and sharing — only through such moments can a husband and wife truly understand each other and grow closer. The fourth is serving God together, with Scripture as the foundation of family life. The pastor uses the image of a triangle with God at the apex: the closer a husband and wife draw to God, the closer they draw to each other. The sermon calls married couples to actively and continually build their marriage in Christ so that love does not fade with the passing of time.