Till 'Irreconcilable Differences' Do Us Part?

Couples are moving away from using "til death do us part" in their wedding vows. Instead they are opting for less contrictive promises, such as...

• "For as long as we continue to love each other"
• "For as long as our love shall last"
• "Until our time together is over"
• Or, my personal favorite: "For as long as our marriage shall serve the greatest good"

This is really no surprise. Couples have been casting aside traditional wedding vows for years. When's the last time you heard a bride promise to "honor and obey" her new husband?

But what's next? Will someone work the signing of a prenuptual agreement into the ceremony, between the lighting of the unity candle and the closing prayer?

According to Christ, marriage is to be a lifelong arrangement. God authored the "till death do us part" line, and it should not be changed. When the Pharisees challenged Christ on the issue of divorce, He responded saying,

Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh?" So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate (Mt. 19:4-6).

A marriage can never be successful without total commitment coming from both sides. Promising "till death do us part" is the easiest part of that commitment. If a spouse is unwilling to take that kind of vow, maybe he would be better off remaining unmarried.