Marriage According To The Bible

Why did God Create Marriage?

Gen. 2:18

1. It’s Purpose: Where Does Our Happiness Fit In?

Someone said “The individual does not even think to ask ‘how important is my happiness,’ because it is accidentally assumed to be of paramount importance, all the time, by everyone.”

• Gary Thomas in his book, Sacred Marriage, suggests that Marriage is not all about what we tend to think marriage is all about. We tend to think marriage exists to solve our problems–loneliness, insecurity, depression, meaninglessness.

• There is some truth in this (married people are overall happier), but we tend to think marriage was instituted/started in order to make us happy. It was not.

• The whole universe, the world, every person, and even marriage was created to bring glory to God, full stop. That’s the big picture–the main reason for everything that exists now and forever. Marriage exists firstly to honor God in five key ways. I pray that you also find that you have married your best friend who will forgive you, help you, and love you on that journey.

It is not accurate to say that Marriage was instituted to make us happy; it is more Biblical to say marriage was created for five main reasons:

1. As a partial, but powerful solution to man’s _loneliness_ (Gen. 2:18).

2. As a way for mankind to _reflect_ the nature of God by exercising loving dominion over nature (Gen. 2:18).

3. In order to reveal the _Gospel_ to a hurting world (Eph 5:22-32).

4. For Christians to produce _godly_ offspring (Mal. 2:15).

5. To help us grow to be more like _Christ_ (1 Cor. 7:2).

So God created marriage for: happiness, to exercise dominion, Gospel, children, and sanctification, all for God’s glory.

2. It’s Permanence: What is the Commitment?

1. Read Gen. 2:18, Deut. 24:1-4

• A certificate of divorce: According to these laws, divorce was allowed in Israel, but carefully regulated. There had to be a cause for a certificate of divorce.

• One commentator said: “The legislation here neither commands nor condones divorce…only regulates its practice…”

• So there had to be _cause_, and it was permitted, not commanded. Jesus notes in Mark that the only reason Divorce is ever permitted is due to a “hard” heart (Mark 10:5). In other words, it is to a man or woman’s credit to forgive an egregious offense and remain married.

• What cause, specifically, allows for a divorce if someone is definitely determined to do this? There must be some uncleanness in the spouse. Some later Rabbis defined uncleanness as anything in the wife which might displease the husband. At the time of Jesus, some Rabbis taught that if a wife burned her husband’s breakfast, or if he found a more attractive woman to marry, he could then divorce her.Thankfully, Christ comments on this very question. Going once again to Mark, we see In Mark 10:1-13, Jesus focused on the word “uncleanness” in Deuteronomy 24, and explains that it means immorality.

• What is “immorality?” The Greek word, like the English word, is broad in its scope (p???e?a) It included a lot of things, and would have included a wayward glance. But that is not Christ’s intention. Here, immorality means a relationship capable of offspring. This is somewhat a judgment call on my part–why do I say this? Because #1 God hates divorce (Mal. 2:16), #2 Even in the most extreme cases it is permitted not commanded or necessarily recommended, #3 If immorality were to be interpreted in its broadest sense then everyone would be permitted to divorce everyone within a few weeks of their marriage, and that is absurd! So, “immorality” must be allowed to carry its restricted meaning here rather than its broadest meaning. According to 1 Corinthians 7:15, abandonment by an unbelieving spouse is also a possible cause.

3. It’s _Power_ and potential: What’s the Good Stuff?

1. As a partial, but powerful solution to man’s _loneliness_ (Gen. 2:18).

A. There is no total solution to man’s loneliness in this life. We will discuss why when we get to Genesis 3. Being married does not fix all your problems, in fact, it brings with it a new host of _issues_. That said,

B. Marriage does, usually, help with loneliness and assist us in a lot of ways. Overall, it is a _good_ thing and is a blessing.

C. People who have bad marriages or have had a bad marriage in the past have a hard time believing marriage can be _good_. But for many people, it is more good than bad. It was certainly designed to be. If this is you, come talk to me.

2. As a way for mankind to _reflect_ the nature of God by exercising loving dominion over nature (Gen. 2:18).

Marriage helps us conquer the world. Men, it often feels like it slows us down, but remember almost everything we do is for our wives and kids. Someone said “A man will endure for his own ends but a Father will die for the sake of his family.” Everything you drive in, touch, buy, own, or live in was built by men trying to feed their families.