Marriage is a big deal to God. God’s design for marriage is beautiful. Here are five truths about marriage that we must remember.
1. Marriage and having children are God’s ideas. Because marriage and children are God’s ideas, people cannot just define marriage any way they choose and expect those definitions to be blessed by the Lord. We need to view marriage God’s way. His way is beautiful.
Genesis 2:18-25 (HCSB)
18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper as his complement.” 19 So the Lord God formed out of the ground every wild animal and every bird of the sky, and brought each to the man to see what he would call it. And whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all the livestock, to the birds of the sky, and to every wild animal; but for the man no helper was found as his complement. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to come over the man, and he slept. God took one of his ribs and closed the flesh at that place. 22 Then the Lord God made the rib He had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 And the man said: This one, at last, is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh; this one will be called “woman,” for she was taken from man. 24 This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh. 25 Both the man and his wife were naked, yet felt no shame.
Genesis 1:26-28, 31 (HCSB)
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; He created him in the image of God; He created them male and female. 28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.” … 31 God saw all that He had made, and it was very good. Evening came and then morning: the sixth day.
2. God’s design for marriage is one man and one woman, committed to one another for life. There should be love, commitment, purity and devotion to one another – physically, mentally, emotionally, and in every way.
Matthew 19:4-6 (HCSB)
4 “Haven’t you read,” He replied, “that He who created them in the beginning made them male and female,” 5 and He also said: “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, man must not separate.”
Matthew 5:27-28 (HCSB)
27 “You have heard that it was said, Do not commit adultery. 28 But I tell you, everyone who looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Hebrews 13:4 (HCSB)
4 Marriage must be respected by all, and the marriage bed kept undefiled, because God will judge immoral people and adulterers.
3. Christian marriage is a demonstration of God’s love for his bride, the church. Notice in the verses below the relationship that exists between a husband and wife, and how that relationship is a picture of God’s great love for his bride, the church – all those who have trusted in Jesus as Lord and Savior, whose lives are committed to Him. Notice in 2 Corinthians 6:14 the warning to not be mismatched with unbelievers in important covenant relationships like marriage. Those mismatched relationships will cause strain and frustration on the relationship, and make it difficult to honor the Lord at all times.
Ephesians 5:22-33 (HCSB)
22 Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, 23 for the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of the body. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so wives are to submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word. 27 He did this to present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless. 28 In the same way, husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hates his own flesh but provides and cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, 30 since we are members of His body. 31 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. 32 This mystery is profound, but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 To sum up, each one of you is to love his wife as himself, and the wife is to respect her husband.
2 Corinthians 6:14 (HCSB)
14 Do not be mismatched with unbelievers. For what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?
4. If someone has deviated from God’s plan in the past, they can be forgiven and made whole. This would include sexually immorality of any kind and also divorce. Jesus is the one who changes lives. He changes us from the inside out. He can make us whole. He forgives us and gives us a new start, with the opportunity to live in the center of His will and blessing, in line with His Word.
2 Corinthians 5:17 (HCSB)
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come.
Colossians 3:5-11 (HCSB)
5 Therefore, put to death what belongs to your worldly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, God’s wrath comes on the disobedient, 7 and you once walked in these things when you were living in them. 8 But now you must also put away all the following: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self. You are being renewed in knowledge according to the image of your Creator. 11 In Christ there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all. (emphasis added)
Romans 1:24-32 (HCSB)
24 Therefore God delivered them over in the cravings of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served something created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen. 26 This is why God delivered them over to degrading passions. For even their females exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 The males in the same way also left natural relations with females and were inflamed in their lust for one another. Males committed shameless acts with males and received in their own persons the appropriate penalty of their error. 28 And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a worthless mind to do what is morally wrong. 29 They are filled with all unrighteousness, evil, greed, and wickedness. They are full of envy, murder, quarrels, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, arrogant, proud, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful. 32 Although they know full well God’s just sentence—that those who practice such things deserve to die—they not only do them, but even applaud others who practice them.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (HCSB)
9 Don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s kingdom? Do not be deceived: No sexually immoral people, idolaters, adulterers, or anyone practicing homosexuality, 10 no thieves, greedy people, drunkards, verbally abusive people, or swindlers will inherit God’s kingdom. 11 And some of you used to be like this. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
5. God’s people must continually show love toward all people and at the same time stand clearly on the truths of the word of God, the way Jesus did. Jesus was always full of grace and truth. Notice his two responses to the woman in the story below. He tells her, “Neither do I condemn you,” and “Go, and from now on do not [continue to habitually] sin anymore.”
John 8:1-11 (HCSB)
1 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 At dawn He went to the temple complex again, and all the people were coming to Him. He sat down and began to teach them. 3 Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, making her stand in the center. 4 “Teacher,” they said to Him, “this woman was caught in the act of committing adultery. 5 In the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do You say?” 6 They asked this to trap Him, in order that they might have evidence to accuse Him. Jesus stooped down and started writing on the ground with His finger. 7 When they persisted in questioning Him, He stood up and said to them, “The one without sin among you should be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Then He stooped down again and continued writing on the ground. 9 When they heard this, they left one by one, starting with the older men. Only He was left, with the woman in the center. 10 When Jesus stood up, He said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 “No one, Lord,” she answered. “Neither do I condemn you,” said Jesus. “Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.”
Marriage is beautiful. Because God’s love is beautiful.
Let’s do things God’s way.
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As our nation approaches election day in November, through these posts I want to explore what the Bible teaches about important issues that are facing our nation. This is post #3 of 5 on these topics.
PODCAST: Click HERE to listen to the podcast of this message.
Great/ Nice to see a Christ follower leader putting this out there and defending marriage.