The Ministerial Secretary of the Southern Ghana Union Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA) Pastor Dr Nii Lamptey Thompson, has urged married couples to commit themselves to meeting each other’s needs.

He again couple must support one another because marriage “does not rest on the lust of the flesh but the principles of love, loyalty, trust, and support upheld by both partners in obedience to God.”

According to him, “when these principles are violated, the marriage is endangered because the Almighty God who instituted such principles acknowledges that tragic circumstances could destroy marriage.”

Pastor Nii Lamptey said these when he took the SDA Pastors’ Wives Association (Shepherdess) in the Southern Sector through the increasing divorce rate in ministerial homes and church at the 2022 Shepherdess Biennial Retreat at Koforidua last Saturday.

He defined marriage as “a life-long commitment between man and woman which requires knowledge to embrace it, and needs one to be careful with the repercussion and be adequately matured to withstand the effect because marriage is not a child’s play.”

He said that a wife or husband was not supposed to leave the partner but if this happened then she or he should remain unmarried or be prepared to accept the partner back. 

He noted that hardly did one hear of a divorce in the olden days but presently, everybody including Christians, men of God, and religious leaders were divorcing everywhere without recourse to the teaching of the Bible.

Pastor Dr Lamptey said God intended the marriage of Adam and Eve to be the pattern for all future marriages, and Christ also endorsed this original concept but because of fashion and especially facial beauty, “a man sees a lady today and tomorrow they are wedding.”

Quoting from the of book of Mark 10:2-9, he said divorce was contrary to God’s original purpose in creating marriage so the Bible was not silent about it, therefore, the Christian concept of marriage should include divine ideal, oneness and equality.

Talking about the role of the Church, he said the model for the husband’s leadership was the self-sacrificial love and service that Christ gave to the Church so the Church should emphasise the love and submission of husband and wife to one another.

Pastor Lamptey advised married couples to always consider the repercussions of divorce and renew their marriage by mutually agreeing to a renewed marriage contract.

From Samuel Opare Lartey, Koforidua.