John 17:20-23 (NIV) My [Jesus’] prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in Me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as You are in Me and I am in You. May they also be in Us so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. I have given them the glory that You gave Me, that they may be one as We are one: I in them and You in Me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that You sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me.

We often think that we can grow in love and unity with God and the people in our ministry without growing in our love and unity with our spouse.

This love and unity that is talked about in this Scripture is saying that God wants Christians to be one. He is taking the relationship that Christians have for each other to the same oneness as the Father has for the Son. Will He accept our oneness with other Christians if we exclude our spouse?

As we have seen, God considers the marriage relationship to be the most important human relationship we have. When we start trying to build relationships with God and the ministry, God will always bring us back to our relationship with our spouse. He has made us one flesh with them. He hasn’t and isn’t going to do this with anyone else.