{"id":594,"date":"2016-09-25T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-09-25T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/?p=594"},"modified":"2016-09-23T18:38:00","modified_gmt":"2016-09-23T23:38:00","slug":"what-does-the-bible-say-about-the-institution-of-marriage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/2016\/what-does-the-bible-say-about-the-institution-of-marriage\/","title":{"rendered":"What does the Bible say about the institution of marriage?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201c\u2026Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning \u2018made them male and female,\u2019 and said, \u2018For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh\u2019? So then they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.\u201d Matthew\u00a019:4ff<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I remember my astonishment as a young pastor when I recognized that most people see the wedding ceremony as the prelude to the main attraction, the reception. The average couple give more thought to the preparations for the reception than to the content of their vows. I even had one couple ask me to pick the vows out for them! I remember my response, \u201cHey, I am not marrying you, you are marrying each other. The vows are the most important part of your day! You need to pick them out together.\u201d<\/p>\n

The whole preparation for the wedding ceremony and the events to follow ought to be planned in the context of a worship service, especially to a seriously committed, religious couple. Our text is one of the prime passages of instruction uttered from our Lord\u2019s own lips. Our present culture is seeking to obliterate even the faintest application of this sublime text.<\/p>\n

In the preceding verses, Jesus is being tested by the Pharisees on a matter of biblical law. There were two schools of thought among the Pharisees. One was strict in its interpretation of divorce and the other was quite lenient. Thus their question, \u201cIs it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason?\u201d<\/p>\n

Our Lord will clearly answer their question in due time, but first, He succinctly states the framework from which God\u2019s instruction hangs. Verses\u00a04 through\u00a06 is an exposition of Genesis\u00a01:27 and 2:24, from the record of the very first marriage, where there were only three, God, Adam, and Eve. God made them \u201cmale and female.\u201d His words could not be plainer. Our Lord\u2019s point in the quote is that marriage is supernatural. God does the \u201cmaking\u201d and He chooses the rules, the design, and the order. One preacher stated, \u201cGod made Adam and Eve and not Adam and Steve.\u201d By the same token God did not create a transforming Adam or Eve. The very concept and definition of \u201cmarriage\u201d is the joining together of two disparate persons. It is a structure that binds these two emotionally, biologically, and distinctly disparate persons together. For such a structure to be successful it better be supernatural.<\/p>\n

Our Lord\u2019s second quote teaches that marriage is ordained by God. Its institution is preeminent over other human institutions, including the state, as it precedes the institution of human government. Human government did not arrive until after the flood in Genesis 9 and the institution of \u201clex talionis<\/em>,\u201d \u201ceye for an eye.\u201d A man leaving his father and mother (the definition of a family), joined to his wife (the institution of marriage), and the two becoming one flesh, is fully understood in the supernatural realm, the realm of spiritual harmony with God and with each other.<\/p>\n

Proverbs\u00a06:23\u201331 is a grand statement of parental warning to a beloved son prohibiting sexual relations with any woman outside of the God-ordained institution of marriage. If, in disobedience to his parents and to God\u2019s prohibition, the son pursues relations with an \u201cadulteress\u201d or a \u201charlot,\u201d he does so to his own ruin. Even though there are physical relations, there is not even the remotest idea that physical relations establish a Genesis\u00a02:24 marriage. There are no promises exchanged, there is no structure of relationship as instituted by God, there is no marriage as ordained by God in either the sin of fornication or of adultery (Proverbs\u00a05:15\u201323). Marriage is not simply physical union, but it is a mutual yielding of individual interests, a surrender of absolute autonomy, and a commitment to encourage and work toward the same goals of establishing a family as God defines it.<\/p>\n

After quoting two verses to teach that marriage is supernatural and that marriage is ordained by God, our Lord goes on to explain that marriage is a divine act, not just a covenant between two people. He says, \u201cSo then, they are no longer two but one flesh.\u201d This He explains to mean that God has acted. He says \u201ctherefore what\u201d not \u201cwhom.\u201d He is creating a \u201cwhat.\u201d The \u201cwhat\u201d He is creating is a joining together (welding together). This act man cannot separate. (Divorce is a separation, never a termination.) In other words, as is borne up by His subsequent teaching in verses\u00a07-10, He is teaching that God institutes \u201cone flesh\u201d and man has instituted divorce (Malachi\u00a02:16). There is a supernatural, ordained, and divine action in what we know as the institution of marriage. This is why a wedding is, at its heart, a worship service to which family and loved ones are invited to attend, to give audience and to witness. Marriage is sacred (Hebrews\u00a013:4).<\/p>\n

Just a short note on verses\u00a07-10 is in order. Moses permitted divorce in the instance of a sexually impure marriage (the only reasonable, biblical explanation of the meaning of this is found in Leviticus\u00a018:6 and Deuteronomy\u00a024:1\u20134 where it is expressive of \u201ctoo near marriage,\u201d for example marrying your first cousin or sister). The disciples understood His meaning to be quite restrictive, as is seen by their conclusion in verse\u00a010, they see His bar as placed quite high. The take-away truth is\u2014choose well the first time. <\/p>\n

A God-honoring marriage is a grand testimony of God\u2019s love lived out before a lost world. Biblical marriage is the establishment of a new unity, intimacy, partnership, identity, and is the greatest venue of testing and displaying the authenticity of the fruit of the Spirit. Trust and obey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201c\u2026Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning \u2018made them male and female,\u2019 and said, \u2018For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh\u2019? So then they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}