Manual

This Momentary Marriage

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Books By John PiPer
God’s Passion for His Glory

Don’t Waste Your Life

The Pleasures of God

The Passion of Jesus Christ

Desiring God

Life as a Vapor

The Dangerous Duty of Delight

A God-Entranced Vision of All Things

Future Grace
A Hunger for God
Let the Nations Be Glad!
A Godward LifePierced by the Word
Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ
The Legacy of Sovereign Joy
The Hidden Smile of God
The Roots of Endurance

(with Justin Taylor)

When I Don’t Desire God
Sex and the Supremacy of Christ
(with Justin Taylor)

Taste and See
Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die
God Is the Gospel
Contending for Our All
What Jesus Demands from the World

The Misery of Job and theMercy of God

Amazing Grace in the Life of
William Wilberforce

The Innkeeper

Battling Unbelief

The Prodigal’s Sister

Suffering and the Sovereignty of God

Recovering Biblical Manhood
and Womanhood

50 Crucial Questions

(with Justin Taylor)

What’s the Difference?

When the Darkness Will Not Lift

The Justification of God

The Future of Justification

CountedRighteous in Christ

The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern
World (with Justin Taylor)

Brothers, We Are Not Professionals
The Supremacy of God in Preaching

Spectacular Sins

Beyond the Bounds (with Justin Taylor)

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This
Momentary Marriage
A Parable of Permanence

John Piper

C R O S S W AY B O O K S
W H E ATON, I L L I NOI SMomentaryMarriageDG.i03.indd 3

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This Momentary Marriage
Copyright © 2009 by Desiring God Foundation
Published by Crossway Books
a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers
1300 Crescent Street
Wheaton, Illinois 60187
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means,electronic, mechanical,
photocopy, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher,
except as provided for by USA copyright law.
Cover design and illustration by: Christopher Koelle and
Matt Mantooth at Portland Studios, Inc.
First printing, 2009
Printed in the United States of America
Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version®.
Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News
Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

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To
Ruth and Bill Piper
Pamela and George Henry
whose marriages were broken only by death

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Contents

Foreword: Pendulums and Pictures by Noël Piper
Introduction: Marriage and Martyrdom

9
13

1 Staying Married Is Not Mainly about Staying in Love

19

2 Naked and Not Ashamed

29

3 God’s Showcase of Covenant-Keeping Grace

41

4 Forgiving and Forbearing

51

5 Pursuing Conformity to Christ in the Covenant63

6 Lionhearted and Lamblike—The Christian Husband
as Head: Foundations of Headship

73

7 Lionhearted and Lamblike—The Christian Husband
as Head: What Does It Mean to Lead?

83

8 The Beautiful Faith of Fearless Submission

95

9 Single in Christ: A Name Better Than Sons and
Daughters

105

10 Singleness, Marriage, and the Christian Virtue
of Hospitality

117

11 Faithand Sex in Marriage

127

12 Marriage Is Meant for Making Children . . . Disciples
of Jesus: How Absolute Is the Duty to Procreate?

137

13 Marriage Is Meant for Making Children . . . Disciples
147
of Jesus: The Conquest of Anger in Father and Child
14 What God Has Joined Together, Let Not Man
157
Separate: The Gospel and the Radical New Obedience

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