There’s a reason it’s called marital bliss.

According to The Journal of Happiness Studies, couples who get married report higher levels of happiness than those who simply cohabitate. Cohabiting couples surveyed were “only three-quarters as happy as marrieds.” And married happiness lasts longer too. Even during middle age, the time when happiness levels drop for most people across the board, marriage still gives couples an advantage.

“That level of commitment,” the article says, “formalized by a ritual and legal document, may be one reason why the advantages of marriage trump those of just living together.”

That of course, and the fact that marital commitment was designed by God and it pictures Jesus’ sacrificial love for His church. (Eph. 5:25).

Yet another study reporting that marriage is better for people than cohabitation underscores that marriage is like gravity. We didn’t invent it. It’s part of the way the world works. To deny it is to deny reality. To redefine it is an exercise in futility.

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