All episodes

Should married people have close friends of the opposite sex? In part one of this series on boundaries with the opposite sex, Aaron and Jennifer Smith begin with a searching question: is there any area of our lives God is not allowed access to? They do a word study of 'honor' from Hebrews 13:4, arguing that your spouse should hold a distinctive, privileged, set-apart place that no other person occupies. They define a close friend as someone you spend time alone with, share intimate details with and have deep conversations with, and explain why they believe married people should not...

Which Bible verses help you overcome sin and temptation? In part two of this series, Aaron and Jennifer Smith share battle verses three through seven to meditate on when you are fighting sin. They start with Romans 8 and the truth that there is no condemnation in Christ, drawing a key distinction between condemnation, which makes you feel cast out and push harder to earn salvation, and conviction, the Spirit lovingly pointing you back to who you are. They cover the Spirit and Jesus interceding for us (Romans 8:26, Luke 22:32), God granting everything for life and godliness (2 Peter...

Overcoming sin as a Christian starts with the Word of God. In part one of this two-part series, Aaron and Jennifer Smith share battle verses to meditate on when you are fighting temptation. They begin with a biblical perspective on sin from 1 John 1-2: not sinless perfection, but not a license to keep sinning either. Battle verse one, 1 Corinthians 10:13, shows that no temptation is uncommon, that God always provides a way of escape, and that temptation itself is not sin, since Jesus was tempted yet without sin. Aaron shares practical ways of escape, like heeding the Holy...

Encouragement for newlyweds, and for every married couple who wants to keep the exuberance, excitement, and love of the newlywed season. In this episode of the Marriage After God podcast, Aaron and Jennifer Smith share encouragement to help you quickly realize what your marriage is actually about, so you can start your marriage off with an eternal perspective. They anchor the conversation in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8: love is patient and kind; it does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude; it does not insist on its own way; it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all...

What does the return of Christ mean for your marriage and everyday life? In this episode of the Marriage After God podcast, Aaron and Jennifer Smith teach that Jesus' second coming should stir an urgency to love others and share the gospel, rooted in hope rather than fear. They describe the present church age as a season of God's patience meant to lead people to repentance, and walk through 1 Thessalonians 4, 2 Peter 3, and Acts 1. You'll hear the Jewish wedding picture of a bride waiting for her groom, and why Jesus will return bodily on the Mount...

What is the gospel, and could you explain it clearly? The gospel is the foundation of everything Christians believe and the reason Aaron and Jennifer Smith started Marriage After God. In what they call the most important topic they will ever discuss on the podcast, they simplify the gospel into its core pieces: God created man, man sinned and is under God's just wrath, and God sent Jesus, the second Adam, to die as the propitiation for our sins and rise again, saving all who believe and confess Jesus as Lord. Aaron vulnerably shares that though he became a Christian...

What does God love? While reading Psalm 37:28, "For the Lord loves justice," Aaron wondered where else the Bible tells us directly what God loves, and this episode of the Marriage After God podcast is the result. Aaron and Jennifer Smith walk through the Scriptures that name what God loves: the world (John 3:16), a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7), justice fulfilled at the cross (Psalm 37:28), righteous deeds (Psalm 11:7), the children of Israel (Hosea 3:1), the disciples who believed (John 16:27), and His Son (John 10:17). Their challenge is simple: if God loves it, maybe we should too....

Big family news: Aaron and Jennifer Smith are pregnant with baby number five! In this episode of the Marriage After God podcast, they share how they found out, starting with Jennifer falling violently ill on a double date, and then answer listener questions about growing a family. They talk candidly about fears (the state of the world, natural birth), finances and the "we can't afford it" objection, trusting God's provision, making room in the car and the house, whether to find out the gender, and the reality of dividing attention among more kids. They share why not being able to...

How do you say something difficult to your spouse? Every marriage faces hard conversations: confronting sin, parenting differences, in-law conflict, big decisions, and areas of growth or change. In this episode of the Marriage After God podcast, Aaron and Jennifer Smith share what they have learned from their own hard conversations. First, the wrong ways: being emotionally charged, speaking in generalities like "you always" and "you never," treating your spouse as the enemy, personal agendas, pride, needing to be right, and bad timing. Jennifer admits her habit of stuffing emotions, and Aaron his drive to be right. Then the biblical...

The Parable of the Good Samaritan is often taught as a call to be the good neighbor, but what if we are actually the man left half dead on the road? In this episode of the Marriage After God podcast, Jennifer shares how God answered her prayer about drawing wisdom from Scripture: after reading Luke on the drive to church, a man at their home church taught on the Good Samaritan from Luke 10. Aaron and Jennifer Smith unpack that gospel-centered interpretation: the Jewish hearers would never have seen themselves as the Samaritan, we are the robbed man who cannot...