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The Puritan ethic of marriage was first to look not for a partner whom you do love passionately at this moment but rather for one whom you can love steadily as your best friend for life, then to proceed with God’s help to do just that.
J. I. Packer
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote emphasizes the importance of choosing a life partner based on enduring friendship rather than just passionate love.

J. I. Packer's quote suggests that successful marriage involves selecting a partner who can be loved as a lifelong friend instead of someone perceived through the lens of fleeting passion. It challenges the common notion of romantic love by advocating for a stable, enduring love anchored in mutual support and the shared goal of nurturing that relationship with divine assistance.

Themes

MarriageLoveFriendshipCommitmentPartnership

In practice

Example use cases

In a wedding ceremony, to emphasize the foundations of a lasting marriage.

More from J. I. Packer

Once you become aware that the main business that you are here for is to know God, most of life's problems fall into place of their own accord.
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He that has learned to feel his sins, and to trust Christ as a Saviour, has learned the two hardest and greatest lessons in Christianity.
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We need to discover all over again that worship is natural to the Christian, as it was to the godly Israelites who wrote the psalms, and that the habit of celebrating the greatness and graciousness of God yields an endless flow of thankfulness, joy, and zeal.
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The fruit of wisdom is Christlikeness, peace, humility and love. And, the root of it is faith in Christ as the manifested wisdom of God
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Were I asked to focus the New Testament message in three words, my proposal would be ADOPTION THROUGH PROPITIATION, and I do not expect ever to meet a richer or more pregnant summary of the gospel than that.
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Only when it is seen that what decides each individual's destiny is whether or not God decides to save him from his sins, and that this is a decision that God need not make in any individual case, can one begin to grasp the biblical view of grace.
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