How to have a Happy Marriage

By Rev. Jeremiah Cheung

Scripture passage: 1 Peter 3:7

Martin Luther once said, “May the wife cause her husband to love coming home, and the husband make the wife sad when he leaves home.”

After a man and woman are married, a woman will value the family more, while the man will value his work more, so the man and the woman will have differing values. To have a happy marriage, the two must be willing to learn.

1. Instructions from the Truth / God’s word

a. Instructions for the wife: Submit to and Respect your husband

b. Instructions for the husband: Love your wife, just as Christ loves the church

2. Four marriage models

a. Hate and Defiance model – man does not love his wife, and wife does not submit; this leads to divorce

b. Hate and Obedience model – the wife is willing to continue and endures the relationship

c. Love and Defiance model – Husband loves the wife, but the wife does not submit.

d. Love and Obedience model – the ideal model: husband loves the wife, wife submits to get husband. It is not an easy model, but it is not impossible.

3. Three principles that must be learned for a successful marriage

a. Husband and wife must spend time together – otherwise the couple will not establish the pattern of loving and submitting. If you love the person, you will find time for the person.

b. Couple must share the housework – this principle pertains not just to the running of the household; this principle also includes raising and disciplining the children, especially in today’s age of working wives and moms.

c. Pay attention to the greatest problems in marriage:
– sexual temptation
– financial crisis
– miscommunication

We must go back to the Bible, return to the truth. Psalm 127:1 reminds us that unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain.