Someone was knocking on the door – a common enough occurrence if it
hadn’t been the middle of the night. Caius turned over in his bed, saw, at a
glance, that the sky was still dark and wondered if he had been dreaming.
No, there it is again. Up through the floorboards rose the
sound of a knock, or rather a tap, on the wooden door below.
With a sigh, Caius pushed off his covers and rose to his feet. Someone
must be in need of help. He made his way down the
stairs without pausing to light a candle. They had better be in need of
help!
The sound repeated just as he was reaching for the latch to open the
door. In the doorway, stood two figures - a man and a woman, silhouetted
against the night sky.
“Come in.” He whispered and they readily complied.
Caius groped through the contents of a nearby table, searching for a
candle. “What brings you here at this hour?”
“We want to get married.” The young man said. “If anyone would help us,
I was told it would be you.”
Caius turned to face the couple. The light of the candle in his hand,
showed the girl’s worried expression and glinted off the young man’s armour.
Rome, 269 A.D.
An emperor named Claudius. A growing army of Roman soldiers. An
ambitious campaign.
The Roman Empire was the leading world power for centuries. The powerful
Roman army was its calling card and Emperor Claudius the First intended to
increase and strengthen it’s ranks.
This was his strategy:
Outlaw marriage.
Claudius had a hypothesis – he believed unmarried
soldiers fought better than married ones. Married men were less
willing to go off to war and when they did, their service was more likely to be
inhibited by fear. Fear not only for themselves, but for their families. What
would become of their wives and children if they died?
Emperor Claudius determined that he could improve
his army by banning marriage. Thus, the edict went out and it became illegal
for Romans to be married and for anyone to marry them.
In an already promiscuous society, this didn’t seem
like a big deal for anyone but the Christians.
Rome was home to a young but growing church. A church that was calling
believers to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord Jesus Christ, fully pleasing
to Him (Colossians i.10). In the area of relationships between a man and a
woman, that meant they were called to be married – husbands of one wife.
Christians had to be obedient to a command that had suddenly become against the
law.
An Attack on Marriage
We live in a generation in which marriage is under attack. We may not be
the subjects of an Emperor who decided to outlaw marriage in order to expand
his army, but we face more subtle attacks each day, messages undermining the
importance of this God –made institution.
Society tells us that anyone who is 'in love' should be allowed to get
married and that 'acts of love' shouldn't be restricted to the confines of
marriage. The truth is that God designed marriage to be a picture of love, but as
Christian we should constantly be reminding ourselves what love really is.
Is it a feeling? An attraction? A choice?
Or is it something much greater than them all?
"In this is love, not that we loved God, but
that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our
sins." (1 John iv.10)
Marriage
is designed to be a picture of true love, in other words it is to be a picture
of the gospel.
God put the confines of marriage – one man with one woman, after they
have become one before God – in place for our good. But, more importantly, He
made it that way to remind us that Jesus Christ lay down his life to purchase
and sanctify for Himself one bride – the church.
Marriage as God defines it is important because it depicts the gospel to
a lost and promiscuous world. Which is why we should always pay attention when
it comes under attack.
Enter Saint Valentine
Valentine was a leader in the church. He was a man who believed strongly
in the importance of following Christ and obeying His commands. He had a heart
to see the people of the pagan society in which he lived transformed by the
light and life of Christ.
It was because of this that Valentine, despite the Emperor’s law,
continued to unite young people in marriage. He did so secretly and he successfully
married many couples.
Eventually, he was discovered and on Febuary 14, 270 A.D. – the
first Valentine's Day - Valentine was executed. He died for defying the
Emperor, he died obeying God and defending marriage as God intended for it to
be.
There is a need in this generation, as in 269 A.D., for marriage to be
upheld regardless of men’s opinions. Will Christians, like Saint Valentine,
rise up to the task?
Happy Valentines Day!
In Christ
Quiana
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