Establish my footsteps in Your Word ~ Psalm 119:133

The Purpose of Marriage

1). Pleasure. Proverbs 18:22 says that a man who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord. Additionally, the Song of Solomon is a poetic masterpiece on the enjoyment of marriage. A God honoring marriage is meant to produce the highest possible pleasure in this life!

2). Pro-creation. God commanded the first man and woman to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28). There is exactly one way for humans to reproduce, and it requires a man and a woman. We know from other passages of scripture that fornication is a sin (Hebrews 13:4; 1 Corinthians 6:18, 7:2; 1 Thessalonians 4:3). Fornication is any sexual activity between people who are not married. God takes this so serious, that fornicators are among those listed who do not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)! And so sexual activity, by God’s perfect design, is supposed to be within the context of marriage, producing children to fill the earth.

3). Picture. Marriage between a man and a woman is meant to be a picture of Jesus Christ’s relationship to the church. Christ is described as the groom (Mark 2:18-20; Luke 5:33-35), who loved His bride, the church (Revelation 19:7; 21:2) so much, that He laid down his life for her in order to present her to Himself as pure and holy and spotless (Ephesians 5:25-27).

To be clear, ‘church’ is not just a building, nor is it necessarily all the people in a particular building that we call ‘the church’. Biblically, the church is all those people who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus, who are cleansed, saved and forgiven solely on the merits of Jesus, the Groom. This body of people comprise the church, and are considered the bride of Christ.

When a husband and wife are living according to God’s design (a monogamous, loving relationship) it becomes a beautiful picture of the relationship between Christ and His beloved church.

4). Permanence. Mark 10:9 says, “Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate” (See also Matthew 19:4-6). God hates divorce (Malachi 2:16) because it destroys His original design.

The Authority Structure of Marriage

The Bible teaches that husbands and wives have different roles in marriage. We believe that God’s design in marriage is for husbands to assume and maintain headship. All of societal structure functions on some sort of headship. At the most basic root of society lies the family unit. God has designed the family to operate in an orderly fashion, which includes the husband and father as the head. There are many scriptural references that support this idea:

1). The Order of Creation. Adam was created first Genesis 2:7; 18-23. Paul would agree with this in 1 Timothy 2:12-13, “I permit no woman to teach or have authority over a man… for Adam was formed first”. This is a principle for all ages, since Paul ties this doctrine to the first husband and wife.
2). The Representation. Adam, not Eve, had a special role in representing the human race. Eve sinned first, but its always Adam that takes the rap. Do we inherit our sinful nature because of Eve’s sin? No, it’s Adam’s sin: ”for as in Adam all die, so as in Christ all shall be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22; see also Romans 5:12-21 where it references the First Adam and the Last Adam).
3). The Naming of Woman. Genesis 2 states that, ”she shall be called woman”. It is not insignificant that Adam is doing the naming here. In the original context, the readers would have understood that the person doing the naming has authority over these things.
4). The Naming of the Human Race. God named the human race MAN not WOMAN. Genesis 5:1-2 says, “when God created MAN” . The actual word for man is ‘adam’, which in the general sense is by no means a gender neutral term. In the first four chapters of Genesis, ‘adam’ is used 13 times, not to refer to a human being in general, but to a MALE human being. In the early chapters of Genesis, the connection with the man in distinction from the woman is a clear pattern. And yet God chose the word MAN to name the human race. Is it significant? Why wouldn’t he call the human race WOMAN?
5). The Purpose for Creating Woman. Eve was created as a helper for Adam, not vice versa. Helper, in the original language means, “supplying something crucial that is lacking”. Eve was not created just to make Adam’s job easier! He was incomplete without her. The very term ‘helper’ implies that the one doing the helping puts themself in a subordinate to the person who has responsibility for carrying out the activity. The text defines ‘helper’ even further by saying she was “a helper SUITABLE FOR HIM”. In other words, she was fit for him; perfectly adequate for his needs and corresponding to what God had planned for him (and her together). They were ‘one flesh’ (v.24). The term stresses unity while recognizing diversity in that oneness. Eve differed from Adam but was his exact complement. In verse 21, it says in most Bible versions that Eve was made from Adam’s rib. Henry Morris, in the Genesis Record, states that the word rib could be a poor translation. Hebrew word for rib (‘tsela’) appears 35 times in the Old Testament, and this is the only time it is rendered ‘rib’. Most times it means ‘side’ (Exodus 25:12; 26:20; 27:7; 36:25; 38:7). The thought is to stress that Eve was not made from Adam’s head (suggesting superiority) nor from his feet (suggesting inferiority), but rather from his SIDE, indicating equality and companionship; to work along side him in carrying out the divine commission to “fill the earth and subdue it”.
6). The Mystery. The passage on marriage in Ephesians 5:31-32, refers back to Genesis 2:24. Adam and Eve probably didn’t know it, but their status as husband and wife represented the relationship between Christ and the Church. Adam represents Christ, Eve represents the church. “The husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church”. Ephesians 5:23 is clear that the leadership and headship role in the church belongs to Christ. Similarly, the husband has the leadership role. It was this way from the beginning!

Worship

Part of God’s orderliness is his perfect design for marriage, which is a union between in man and a woman in a monogamous loving relationship. Most people do not believe this anymore and the result is the rapid disintegration of marriage and the family unit. When we attempt to re-define male and female and their respective God-ordained roles, the consequences are devastating. Society is plunging into chaos due to its rejection of God’s plan for marriage. As Christians, it is imperative for us to stand upon God’s Word and speak boldly in these matters. We will be mocked and scorned. We will be viewed as unloving. But as Paul stated in Galatians 4:16, “Have I become your enemy because I tell you the truth?”. The most loving thing we can do for our neighbor is to speak truth into their lives.

We worship God for His perfect plan for marriage: one male and one female together for life, which was set forth from the beginning of Creation.