When they say the third party in marriage, what comes into your mind? Yes, it might be hard for some to understand the jargon straight way forward. In relationship terms, when they say the third party in marriage, they are referring to the inclusion of the third person in the couple's life.
In other words, a third person may also mean someone who is not our partner.
In most cases, a third person is involved in a situation when the relationship between the two people is in tumult. The person can either be a couple's family members, friends, co-workers, or neighbours.
The matter of whether couples should bring in a third party to the marriage has been a controversial and debated issue for a long time.
As a result, many couples were advised to avoid third parties even before entering their marriage. So with these allayed fear, they assumed well that a third party in a marriage is actually a ruinous way to go.
Married people have regarded the third party in marriage as a sign of weakness and a marital failure or a channel of allowing bad people to enter the marriage.
Avoidance and demarcations in marriage rather it is likely to make the married people undeniably feel isolated, which would heighten the risks of negative mental consequences than actually having a third party in the marriage.
According to Sheri Stritoff, the Doctor of Medicine a reproductive and prenatal psychiatrist who combines traditional psychiatry with integrative medicine-based treatments, believes that an objective of the third party, such as a licensed marriage and family therapist or clergy member, is necessary to engage as a third party in marriage so as to handle conflicts where necessary.
"A counsellor can help facilitate the forming of a new family structure that includes your spouse. You and your partner might agree to attend premarital counselling or an 'Engaged Encounter weekend," she writes in his article published in VeryWellMind.
In the realms of the Christian perspective, the faith believers assume the vows made during the marriage are not limited to merely the duo parties but extend further to the act of God too and, therefore, only the divine intervention as a third party in a marriage is authentic.
Despite this belief, however, the levels of divorce among Christian couples have been similarly the same as those of non-Christians. To some extent, the Christians who have remained stuck on the biblical standards that support the assumption of divine intervention as the authentic person in marriage have sustained their marriage.
In Christianity, marriage is taken as a sacred union to respect and honour and therefore, the third person in marriage entrance is an authentic move except only through him—God himself. For instance, in Genesis 2:24, the scripture supports an idea of why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one a husband and his wife.
In John 2:1-12, the bible explains Christ's love is the one who never gives ups and never fails. He was there to rejoice with the married couple in Galilee of Cana, where Jesus made miracles in their midst. In the same way, he can make miracles in your marriage if you let him.
One of the reasons why the third party in marriage idea is controversial is the risk of creating feelings of attachment or attraction that would grow among the couples.
According to the True Jesus Church website, opening the door to a third party in marriage is like opening the door to temptations where inappropriate gestures and feelings are nonexistent.
The article published by the TJC titled Forsaking All Others: Keeping Intruders Out of Your Marriage advises that it is better to choose same-sex friends when we are choosing a third party in marriage.
"The most prudent advice is for us to pour out our hearts and discuss our marital problems with our same-sex friends," the article writes.
"We must be careful not to invite intruders to take advantage of our vulnerabilities by tempting us to turn to some who could potentially be an intruder in our marriage," the article further adds.