Timothy Keller - The Meaning of Marriage Study Guide: A Vision for Married and Single People

Other Studies by Timothy Keller

Gospel in Life (video and study guide)

Jesus the King (study guide only)

The Prodigal God (video and study guide)

The Reason for God (video and study guide)

ZONDERVAN

The Meaning of Marriage Study Guide

Copyright 2015 by Redeemer City to City

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Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

ePub Edition September 2015: ISBN 978-0-3108-7003-6

All Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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Producer/editors: Scott Kauffmann, Mai Hariu-Powell

Cover design: Richard Hasselberger

Interior design: Matthew Van Zomeren

First Printing July 2015

CONTENTS

Ephesians 5:22 33

Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church for we are members of his body. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

EBOOK INSTRUCTIONS

In this ebook edition, please use your devices note-taking function to record your thoughts wherever you see the bracketed instructions [Your Notes] or [Your Response]. Use your devices highlighting function to record your response whenever you are asked to checkmark, circle, underline, or otherwise indicate your answer(s).

Love is as strong as death,
its jealousy unyielding as the grave.
It burns like blazing fire,
like a mighty flame.
Many waters cannot quench love;
rivers cannot sweep it away.
If one were to give
all the wealth of ones house for love,
it would be utterly scorned.

King Solomon (Song of Songs 8:6 7)

We are obsessed with love. Our Billboard charts, movie theaters, and all of our screens pile stories upon stories about our longing to love and be loved. The greatest novels and plays of all cultures in all times are filled with love stories. Some are tragic and some end in happily ever after, but every culture has love stories because love is at the core of the human experience. Simply put, we are always pursuing and longing for love.

Over time and through a variety of big and small moments in marriage, you will encounter many of your lifes greatest joys and sternest tests. That is why most married people will tell you that marriage is hard work because in marriage you are regularly handling the powerful forces of selfishness and love, and that requires patience, hope, repentance, forgiveness, and great intentionality.

The primary goal of this study is to help all of us, regardless of our marital status, to see the marriage covenant as a reflection of Jesus love, grace, and power in our lives. In these sessions you will explore the profound mystery of the love described by the apostle Paul in his letter to the Ephesian church. There he shows us that the love of God, given to us in the gospel, is the only inexhaustible source for sacrificial love between spouses as it is for all human love in general.

After all, the climactic I do in a wedding ceremony seals more than just a romantic moment. It is a public promise to love our spouse in a way that can only happen through knowing Jesus as our ultimate, true spouse. But that will involve a reconstruction of the way most of us have been taught to think about marriage, singleness, and love.

We hope discussion groups will go through this material together because truth is transformative when processed in community and we encourage you to include both married and single people in that community as you work through the material.

The Meaning of Marriage is a six-session video study designed for small groups but adaptable for use by couples and individuals, both married and single. The video sessions are facilitated by Jeff White, a pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, and feature Tim and Kathy Keller and participants with a variety of spiritual beliefs and life experiences in both marriage and singleness. All participants read the book and reread certain chapters in preparation for the filmed discussions. We are grateful for each of their voices and thoughtful perspectives in these discussions, and we hope their insights will fuel similar dialogue in your group as well.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED

In addition to The Meaning of Marriage DVD (one per group) and this study guide, each person or couple will need the following:

A copy of the book The Meaning of Marriage. While the Group Times are designed so that you can participate without this book, you will need this book for your Home Study. (Page numbers noted throughout this study guide are from the paperback edition, Riverhead Books, 2013.)

A Bible. If you dont have a copy, there are plenty of free apps you can use to download a free copy of the Bible. You will have the opportunity to read sections of the Bible throughout these next six weeks as a central part of this experience.

EACH SESSION HAS THREE COMPONENTS

1. Home Study

To get the most out of this experience you will interact with concepts before, during, and after your group gathering. Each Home Study is designed to help you reflect on the content from your most recent Group Time, and then prepare for the upcoming session by reading and reflecting on a selected chapter or two from The Meaning of Marriage.

2. Group Time

The Group Time component walks a small group through key concepts from the book The Meaning of Marriage. Each group discussion will include a video (about 20 25 minutes long) that covers selected ideas from each chapter. The study guide will then lead your group through a discussion to help you apply the principles from the book, the video, and your Home Study. Most questions are relevant to both married and single people; a few in each session apply only to married people.

3. Marriage Plan

In addition to the Home Study and Group Time, an exercise specifically for married couples is built into each session. These exercises designed to do at home or on a date will help married couples apply what they are learning in practical ways.