Week 11: Chapter 10 — Marriage: A Call to Love and Serve God

1.Thomas argues that the highest purpose of marriage is not even a good marriage — it is using the marriage as a context for loving and glorifying God. How does that claim sit with you? Does it feel liberating or threatening — and why?

2.He draws on Paul's declaration in Galatians 2:20 — "I no longer live, but Christ lives in me" — to argue that a Christian's primary identity is not "spouse" but "servant of Christ," and that this actually makes us better spouses. How does keeping your primary allegiance to God rather than to your marriage change how you approach the marriage?

3.Thomas warns against "spouse idolatry" — making our spouse the primary source of our meaning, identity, and happiness, which places a crushing weight on them that they were never designed to bear. Where do you see that dynamic in your own marriage or in marriages around you?