Hannah just returned from a wedding of a friend and happily reported that it was a Christian wedding. Which might lead some to ask what is a Christian wedding?
Well, it's not what New York did this past Lord's Day. Despite what the civil magistrate says, those weren't even weddings, let alone Christian.
A Christian wedding is a public exchange of vows by one man and one woman in which the man vows love and faithfulness until death and the wife vows love and faithfulness and obedience until death.
Other things may be added, but without each element of those vows, it is no Christian wedding.
Evangelicals need to be divided and this may well be the method that will do it most surgically...
The next wedding you go to, commend the bride and groom and their parents, but particularly the pastor and his elders, if it's a Christian wedding ceremony. Single out the vow of obedience for explicit commendation since that's the breach in the wall.
And regardless of who's getting married, if the vow of obedience is not taken by the wife, point out to the pastor and his elders, at least, if not the bride and groom and their parents, that the wedding ceremony was not Christian because the historic vow of wifely obedience was removed.
Say it politely, but firmly, pointing out that it is the duty of pastors and elders to guard the good deposit that has been passed on to them--this is what Scripture commands.
Nothing would do a better job of separating the church from the world at weddings today. And that's what weddings could do to help make the Lordship of Christ visible again in our age.
(TB: here's more on Christian wedding ceremonies)
