Tim and Kathy Keller provide us a great resource for the Biblical Theology of Marriage. As a pastor of a church with a demographic of 80% single adults we find that Keller has a great opportunity and need to research and teach on the subject of marriage. His congregation obviously will be thinking about marriage and thinking about whether or not it is a cultural covenant or a Biblical covenant.
Keller bases his book on a series of messages that he first gave in 1991, but he has refined those messages over the years and delivered them many times. So, with the background of 37 years of marriage and the many years of counseling others and preaching about marriage he has a profound sense of what our culture, especially our Western Evangelical Church culture, needs to hear. He has taken his messages, refined them and added pertinent data from Christian and secular sources to provide us a great book.
Don't neglect to look at his bibliography and download some of the articles that he mentions in the book.
Each chapter builds on the previous one. Maybe the best chapter happens to be Chapter Six, Embracing the Other. It is written by Kathy and does a great job of defining the roles of men and women (husbands and wives) in the marriage relationship based on Ephesians 5. It is nice to hear from a woman's perspective how those roles are defined and best played out in marriage. Kathy gives good insights and lots of good information that I plan to incorporate into my pre-marital counseling situations.
Chapter seven deals with Singleness and is just as profound as chapter six on providing good and sometimes very new thoughts on how the Bible relates to marriage. Given the fact that Redeemer Church has 80% single adults this chapter is well researched, well written and comes with lots of experience behind it. This is a wonderful chapter. Chapter eight deals with the topic of sex and has great information.
This book is a must read for any couple thinking of marriage or for any Christian Counselor who is dealing with people and their marriage issues.
Finally, the best principle for me from the book was on page 168 when Keller states that the most powerful tool in any marriage partners arsenal is the gift of "Forgiveness!" That is absolutely true and something that many people forget about. If you have the ability to love your partner, forgive your partner and seek forgiveness from your partner you will succeed in marriage.
Well, enough said, stop reading reviews of the book and just buy it, you won't be disappointed.
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