TEXT: "You shall not commit adultery" (Exodus 20:14).

"You have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, putting away lying, 'let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,' for we are members of one another. 'Be angry, and do not sin': Do not let the sun go down on your wrath" (Ephesians 4:20-26).

IDEA: We move toward intimacy in marriage when we learn how to handle disagreements in marriage.

PURPOSE: To help listeners think of disagreements in marriage not as impediments to intimacy but as pathways to intimacy.

Several years ago a cartoon in the New Yorker magazine showed a husband and wife standing nose to nose, having an argument with each other. The wife said to the husband, “You’re absolutely right, Charles. No one is perfect, especially you.”

Have you ever thought that about your own marriage? No marriage is perfect, especially ours.

I. Conflicts are an important part of a Christian marriage.

Where do our disagreements in a marriage come from?

If you take two people from different backgrounds, different emotional reactions to life and put them together, they are bound to disagree.

If two people live together and they don’t disagree, then one of them is unnecessary.

The question is not, will there be differences in a Christian marriage? It is how we handle our disagreements.