More Than a Ritual

Scripture Texts: Romans 2; Psalms 16

Just because someone has gone through the ritual does not mean they have been changed. That is what Paul is teaching the followers in Roman. At that time there was a huge confrontation about those who were circumcised and those who were not. A popular notion was that a person must first become a Jew before they could become a follower of Jesus.

To become a Jew, a man must go through the ritual of circumcision. The completion of this ritual would be an outward sign of being part of the people of God. Paul was teaching that a persons relationship to God did not have to do with being Jew or Gentile, circumcised or not, it was about the desire to follow God. The ritual only pointed to a deeper belief.

We both wear wedding bands as an outward and visible sign of the covenant we made before God and to each other. Millions of people wear wedding rings and have made the same covenant before God and to each other. For some there is a profound difference, they have gone through the ritual and have the visible sign but have not allowed their lives to be transformed.

When we made our covenant and exchanged our rings, our lives were forever changed. Two lives became one. No longer is it about the individual, rather it is about us. So many marriages do not survive because the ritual is done with our the transformation. The true measure of a marriage is not found in the elaborate wedding, or the ornate rings, it is found in the character and depth of the union of two souls.