Marriage in The Message

So...I have a love/hate relationship with The Message.  It started out as hate but as I've learned more about it the more I love the way Eugene Peterson translates ancient text.  I think that I used to view it as a paraphrase...which is really what anyone who preaches or teaches Scripture gives when they preach or teach.  I now know that Mr Peterson did not take the NIV or any other translation and paraphrase but he began with the Hebrew and Greek manuscripts and translated them into the most modern use of the English language.  I respect his hard work...but I am not going to start using it as my study Bible. 

There are some amazing word pictures in The Message...like this one I heard last night in Bible study:

It's good for a man to have a wife, and for a woman to have a husband. Sexual drives are strong, but marriage is strong enough to contain them and provide for a balanced and fulfilling sexual life in a world of sexual disorder. The marriage bed must be a place of mutuality—the husband seeking to satisfy his wife, the wife seeking to satisfy her husband. Marriage is not a place to "stand up for your rights." Marriage is a decision to serve the other, whether in bed or out. Abstaining from sex is permissible for a period of time if you both agree to it, and if it's for the purposes of prayer and fasting—but only for such times. Then come back together again. Satan has an ingenious way of tempting us when we least expect it. - 1 Corinthians 7:2-6

I love some of the phrases and pictures looking at marriage this way gives me.  Marriage is not a place to stand up for your rights...it is a decision to serve.  It paints marriage as a strong, safe place when filled with service for one another...it also reminds me that Satan is prowling around looking for an opportunity to tempt.  God's design is always perfect...even when bringing together two imperfect people.  I love that about Him.