The Problem with Commitment

Malachi 2:10-16 Do we not all have one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our ancestors by being unfaithful to one another?
¹¹ Judah has been unfaithful. A detestable thing has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the Lord loves by marrying women who worship a foreign god. ¹² As for the man who does this, whoever he may be, may the Lord remove him from the tents of Jacob—even though he brings an offering to theLord Almighty.
¹³ Another thing you do: You flood the Lord’s altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer looks with favor on your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. ¹⁴ You ask, “Why?” It is because the Lord is the witness between you and the wife of your youth. You have been unfaithful to her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant.
¹⁵ Has not the one God made you? You belong to him in body and spirit. And what does the one God seek? Godly offspring. So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful to the wife of your youth.
¹⁶ “The man who hates and divorces his wife,” says the Lord, the God of Israel, “does violence to the one he should protect,” says the Lord Almighty. So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful.

There is a saying that gets thrown around a lot at my church: Image Bearers. It really struck me when I first heard it. I had been taught as a child that we are all created in the image of God, but I had never heard Image Bearers before. In saying that we are image bearers, we are saying that we bear the image of God. The word bear, means to hold a burden, like a roof bears the burden of snow. In a way this is true of us as well. There are no other beings in the universe that can claim to be made in the image of God. Nor is there any being that can claim that God would stoop so low as to wear our skin, our clay. 

Our image is that of a creator, our burden is to bear that image in this world. So Malachi's question cuts deep at the beginning of this passage. 'Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our ancestors by being unfaithful to one another?' If we are in fact bearing the image of God, why do we continue to treat others as less then ourselves? When the Pharisees asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was he answered 'Love the Lord your God... and the second... Love your neighbor.' (Matt 22:36-40). It makes sense that we would love the God who made us and because of this love, love those created in his image.

The problem is that we don't like playing by the rules. We feel the need to dictate our own way, to set ourselves up to be greater then the God of creation. And this in truth is the reason there is a problem with commitment. If we refuse to worship and love the God who knit us together, who breathed life into our clay, how can we ever truly love and commit to the people around us? 

We are so easily drawn away from what deep love and commitment to God, simply because we put other things higher then God. This does not just effect our relationship with our Father in heaven. Malachi calls the people to remember the commitments that they have made with each other. To honor God not just with worship and love, but to also honor him by how we treat those around us. Judah's decision to break their wedding commitment mirrors the way they have broken with God. 

In fact the image of marriage comes up often through out the scriptures. In the end times the church is like a bride, coming to meet her bride groom (God). Our constant inevitable self created distance from God, mirrors the divorce and destruction of marriage in real life. The problem with Commitment isn't commitment, its what we are committed too.

If we are committed to ourselves and our owe thoughts, dreams, ambitions, and fears, we will never feel happiness nor complete. Money, sex, power, technologies, family, children, marriage, alcohol, and whatever else we find important, will never complete us. We can not be completed by created things. However, if we commit to God, something very different takes place. No longer are the things of this earth weighing us down. No longer are our hopes and dreams tied to this created plain. Rather we are lifted to a hope which we have no right too. Jesus commits to God so great a act of worship and honor, that we are given a pure commitment. We are that Bride dressed in white.

Thus our commitment to God brings our love of Him to those around us. No longer can we live in fear or hate. This person, my neighbor, perhaps even my enemy, bears the image of God. All of us created for His Glory. Why would we be unfaithful to each other?