Marriage is a divine institution of God; it is not a mere social construct of man. As such, your commitment to your marriage is a commitment to the covenant of God, and the unity and fellowship of the world of man are dependent upon it.
When you make your marriage vows, it is therefore a vow toward God rather than to the other partner; in the Baha'i Faith, the oath is, 'We will all, verily, abide by the Will of God', rather than a vow to each other. As a covenant between you and your Maker, it is an unending covenant to last far beyond the duration of this life, a commitment befitting the eternality of the righteous soul. Because it is not a covenant between two humans, it is not to be dissolved by man; whoever does so, had better pray earnestly for God's approval when their eyes are opened to the Beyond. The Bible likewise records this same perspective, where Jesus says, "What God has joined together, let not man put asunder" (Mk 10:9), and in Islam, that marriage is half of the religion of God. Your partner being the symbol of God within your life, your marriage vows must by very nature take the form of commitment to God.
If both your commitments to marriage are commitments to God, you should solidly get through whatever challenges are encountered; and if just one of these two commitments is not toward God, then a challenge can come - and likely will come - that will shatter any human-to-human bond, however strong it may be.
Much as you should never look at your child, parent or sibling and contemplate swapping them for another - though you might endeavour to elevate them using what you've learnt from another - so, too, there will certainly at some time pass you or come into your life, a person who appears far better, more fruitful, more beautiful or more spiritual than your present partner; in a relationship founded in true commitment, this will present no dangers, and if you hit together the bottom of the rocks for any reason, a marriage founded in true commitment to God will invariably recover, and the leaves of that relationship regain health and thrive upon the tree of that commitment, with every issue fully addressed and rearranged, which is possible because you can rely on the marriage being on unshakeable grounds; Baha'u'llah describes marriage as 'a fortress for well-being'; whereas, in a commitment to marriage that has a human-to-human commitment, you can scarcely address ANY fundamental issues: they have to be avoided, because to address them rocks the very foundations of that commitment; unable to be addressed, the issues fester and the marriage ultimately is destroyed.
* Note: In the verse quoted, the grammatical form of the word 'We' ('We will all, verily, abide by the Will of God') is in the male plural for the male and the female plural for the female.
Modified: 2007-05-05