Song of Solomon 1:16 (ESV)

16 Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly delightful. Our couch is green;

Love needs to be alive and stay alive. One of the things that is very important in this regard is to keep telling the other person that you love him or her. We should not hide our love for the other person somewhere deep in our hearts.

In this regard we also recognize that marriage is an image of the relationship between Christ and his church, between God and his people. What truly matters in our lives? What is the purpose of man as the image of God? It is this: that you love the Lord and that you really want to live by his love; that we praise and glorify the Lord. Anyone who truly loves Christ, who really loves God, has no problem praising and glorifying him. His love is so awesome and so unfathomably great and good that it brings about his praise and adoration. God’s children cannot remain silent about this love.

This is also how it ought to be in the marriage, which takes place based on the love of Christ. We see this already in paradise. When the Lord has fashioned a helper for Adam who suits him, Adam sings the praises of his Creator in amazement and gratitude: This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man (Genesis 2:23).

It is necessary that in marriage we continue to express love toward one another. This is how we praise the Lord who has given this man or woman to me. As a result of that expressed love for one another, man and woman then experience sexual intercourse.