Dearly beloved, Friends and family members, we are gathered together in the sight of God to join together this man and woman in holy matrimony. As we gather to this ceremony of marriage,we must recognize that we have come to a Christian wedding. It is not like any other that the world may perform. Yes, the external things look the same. Christian marriage, how­ever, is much different. Its foundation is Christ Jesus our Lord. It is with this foundation in place, that we come to understand the reality of marriage.The truth of Christ’s love for His Bride, the Church,must work into our daily situations and relationships,especially marriages. We come today to honor the husband and wife relationship. Marriage is a covenant made between two people for love and loyalty. These two people stand before us to make such a covenant today. They come to this new relationship with eyes wide open ac­knowledging the hard work demanded in committing to exclusive love and loyalty. Marriage is an honorable estate, instituted of God. It is commended in the Scriptures to be honorable among all, and therefore is not for any to be entered into unad­visedly or lightly, but reverently, discreetly, advisedly, so­berly, and in the fear of God. Into this holy estate these two persons present, come now to be joined. Divine record of the first marriage in human history, had this recorded. “And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field,and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the -air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and -He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the Lord God had taken fromman, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said,This is now bone of my bones, and flesh my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Let’s pause here.Who told women these days that marriage is Partnership of equal rights? From where did the idea that Women are ” the better half ” of the man? That’s from the pit of hell! The man was created first as the head, and how can you be better half of your Head and Owner? Did Sarah not call Abraham,her Lord? How then can a Woman be better than and equal to her Lord. This is why Christian Marriages don’t last. Modern mercantile preachers who for membership, release what the itching ears want to here while sidesteping the holy sculptures. Back to the book of Genesis, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed (Genesis 2:18-25). . Paul addresses this when he says, Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. 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. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own hus­bands in every thing. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, 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. So ought men to love their wives as their own bod­ies.He that loveth his wife loveth himself For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: for we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. Pause, the Bible did not order or command the wife to love her husband! The command is Submit to the husband as the church submits to Jesus Christ. What the man needs is Submission, respect and honor. It is for the man to love she that submitted, respected and honored him. The man has no basis to love,when there is no submission, respect and honor the necessary and imperative ingredients for a peaceful home,for the man. He bears all the pressure, tolerates all the manipulations and drama from a disrespectful wife who often weaponizes, intimacy, and the children against the man who left his mother and father to join his wife to become one flesh with her. By this they turned what was supposed to be a mystery into a misery! This is mainly because the wife failed see that she reverenced her husband as commanded in Ephesians 5:22-33.

Many men has been sent to their early graves, because they labored under the yoke of a bad wife onto old age. This is more so where the wives turned children against their father. These days, social media and heartless content creators have messed the younger generations to the extent that Men and Women of family types have become very scarce, even in Church! Lord have Mercy

Bishop Clement Udegbe writes from Florida USA.