CHAPTER TWO

"But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them.

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:14-16)."

The Bible states many things about Marriage. Among other things, by God's commandment, a family is implied in each marriage. Let us notice first, Acts 16:31, in the New Testament. It is a very great and vital promise. It was directed towards an individual, but included his family. Because it became part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it now applies to every New Testament believer and their family. God wants to save families as well as individuals. It works through believing God's Word.

"And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house (Acts 16:31)."

The word 'house', as it is used here, does not mean the street address where you live. It means yourself first, and it includes your relatives, especially those who are descended from you. For example, the Bible often uses the term, "House of Israel", meaning the descendants of the Patriarch Jacob.

Our study of the human family in the Bible, should begin in Genesis 1:28, just after God had created Adam and Eve.

"And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth."

That is when God instituted Marriage. It is as old as the human race. Human marriage is unique. It is unique in the special endowments that God blessed it with. It is also unique because of supreme obligations to God, to husbands, to wives, to children, to parents, and to human society. There's an automatic response in society that rises out of our attitude towards marriage.

When any society degrades Holy Matrimony, there is always a horrific impact of spiritual, moral, social, physical, and economic decay. It comes because people separate themselves from the God's blessing, and incur the curse of sin. Therefore, they endure the results of being detached from God's goodness.

Some things in life are good for us because of their inherent goodness. Also, some things are bad for us because they are inherently bad. God has told us to choose what is good. That can only be done by obeying Him. His ordinances and constraints are always for the good of humanity. God is not the enemy of mankind, and He does not willingly afflict anyone.

Notice: "God blessed them." He ordained a kind goodness, that can make life worth living. Within His blessing, God ordained the deepest satisfaction, comfort, support and welfare for individuals, for families, and nations. Human suffering is great because of disobedience.

Along with His blessing, God decreed the permanent sanctities of Marriage. Any corrupting of marriage by sin is a sin against God, Who originated it. That is a choosing of what is evil in lieu of what is good. That prevents us from receiving what He ordained for our good.

ANY sexual intercourse with anyone but your spouse is a sin against God. It is also a SIN against the human body! Notice 1 Corinthians 6:18: "Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body." Also: "But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul (Proverbs 6:32)."

That means that something is WRONG with the man that commits adultery! He scorns the most basic premise of marriage. He scorns the commandment of God, thus despising Him. For example, God charged King David with that sin, along with adultery and murder, when he had sinned with Bathsheba. See 2 Samuel 12:9, in the Holy Bible.

In the grip of his lust the adulterer ignores the binding obligations of his marriage and/or of the marriage of the woman that he sins with. He despises the restrictions that God placed upon Marriage.

God placed an unavoidable mandate upon holy marriage. It was first spoken by Adam under God's inspiration. Notice Genesis 2:23-24:

"And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they two shall be ONE flesh." (My emphasis).

The word "Cleave" means more than spouses physically holding one another. It means more than sexual union. It includes both, but it mainly has to do with inseparable union. "They two shall be one flesh, Genesis 2:24."

The act of cleaving together requires harmony in basic areas of agreement and assent and purpose. As long as spouses focus on areas of harmony, they will have internal calm and pleasant relationship.

If they focus on areas of disagreement, strife, diverging purposes, or on extra-marital attentions, they will not have harmony. If they do not repair the problems, their cleaving together will be weakened. In Christian experience, believers are offered a high means of dealing with discord. We can be blessed by believing what God has said about marriage, and by letting what He said affect our union.

Ephesians 5:25 bids husbands to love their wives, and verse 22 bids wives to submit to their husbands. This can help resolve marital conflict, without casting either spouse as a failure. The Scripture states that: "Love works no ill to his neighbor ", Romans 13:10. How much more does this apply to one's spouse!

It is precious when the Holy Spirit reveals the inner quality of Divine nature and purpose in our born again spouse. How beautiful sterling, Godly character is! It is a beauty that surpasses natural attributes. That supernatural quality adds to our regard for our spouse. It has been my happy privilege to see that in my own wife. She is a Godly woman, and what a treasure she is!

A heart that is taught by God, will esteem Godly character more than common mortal attributes. If less than desirable mortal attributes are visible, (and each of us must cope with them because we are all mortal) the beauty of the Spiritual so excels the mortal as to render it trivial. Such esteem shows where the treasures of our heart is deposited. Heaven is to be our home, and Godly nature is to be our pursuit. Notice 2 Peter 1:4: "That by these ye might be partakers of Divine the nature."

Most people are dominated by their physical senses. They never develop spiritual abilities. Thus, it is easy to think of one's spouse on the basis of their mortal attributes. Every one is subject to failures, weakness, and too often they are enslaved by their passions.

We believers in Jesus Christ are New Creatures in Christ. We are delivered from the old sinful way of life, and we are called into holy obedience to the Words of God. That means that divorce, strife and ill will are "out"! We are not to tolerate such things in our inner attitude, and we are not to yield ourselves to them outwardly. We have been given the gift of Eternal, Divine Life in Christ. Being alive with holy animation, we are to yield ourselves to the will of God, Romans 6:13.

Because we are married to a mortal spouse, we must constantly practice the Divine attribute of forgiveness. The required forbearance, long suffering, and patience with others certainly applies to marriage. We must not focus on things of discord, or be overtaken with strife. We must set ourselves to refuse them when they occur, because our spouse is likely to ignite the same problem in the future.

I am not talking about outright sin, I am talking about the "little things" that make for friction and disagreement. Believers should be warned about strife.

Notice James 3:16: "For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work." Often, people let those little things become major issues and ultimately cause a marital rift.

Therefore, in the light of the Scripture, let us perceive the idea of "cleaving together" as a commitment that will withstand everything that could destroy our marriage. Through faith, spiritual growth, and with God's help, believers can overcome such threats. We must make a fervent effort to live a Christ-like life before our spouse, lest we cause them to fall. Notice how the Scripture endorses the idea of helping each other. Ecclesiastes 4:9-12.

"Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falls; for he has not another to help him up. Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken."

Nowhere does this concept work better than between spouses. God has called woman man's 'helpmete'. She is exactly that, spiritually, as well as mortally. Scripture calls her the 'weaker vessel', but she is supremely important to the well being of her husband. How much, God in His wisdom, has provided for human welfare.

All ethnic groups recognize the marriage bond, though ceremony and traditions may differ. American states issue a Marriage License and a Certificate of Marriage. They become the legal records of a marriage. God does not require such records to validate a marriage; they are merely for human legal and social benefit.

Although in time, "Common Law" marriages become recognized by our Government, they are outside of God's Mandate. Such marriages begin with either fornication or adultery because the couple are not married before sexual activity begins.

It is an error for Government to set aside or ignore God's Mandate. Marriage is to be approved by the Government, not made by it. Properly, Government ought to recognize what God joins together. No human exigency can change God's Mandate.

There is spiritual, moral, and legal parts of marriage. When a marriage rightly corresponds to them, it is right and it receives God's favor. God regards marriages as lawful or unlawful, according to His statutes.

That is not the same as the legal records which are for the benefit of society and of Government. Some people recognize the statues imposed by Government on marriage, but ignore the moral and spiritual parts of it. The Courts of our Nation often appear to ignore the moral issues of marriage. They default to merely the legal aspect, and that often seems to be based upon a misguided philosophy.

There is no such thing as marriage between man and man or of woman and woman. That is a perversion of God's mandate. It will provoke God's wrath and promised judgment. The concept of homosexual 'marriage' is appalling to any but a reprobate mind. Such a 'marriage' cannot produce any off spring. It is against human nature. It a corruption of what God decreed.

Romans 1:26-27 shows that homosexuality is perverted sexual lust. It can't beget even illegitimate offspring! It can beget deadly disease. God judged it according to Genesis 19:24-25. It is yet due His future judgment.

Homosexual 'marriage' is thus identified as an unlawful (per Genesis 1:28) concept. It defies God's just demand for holy conduct and accountability. The sins of Sodomy so offended God that He laid the name as an execration upon those who practice it, and burned their cities because of it. Genesis 19:4-25.

Malachi 2:14-16 states: "Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant. And did not He make one? And wherefore one? That He might seek a Godly seed. Therefore, take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. For the Lord, the God of Israel saith that He hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the Lord of Hosts: therefore, take heed to your spirit that ye deal not treacherously.

God stated why He made the marriage union between a man and a woman. It was that He might seek a Godly seed. Such seed can be gotten only in a marriage that in agreement with God's mandate. Such a marriage is Godly. Every other kind of marriage is ungodly.

As surely as God is the One Who originated Marriage, He is also the One Who created the sex genitals; the emotions and sexual desires, and every right thing that makes sex function in human beings. But He never intended for sin to enslave humanity by those things. His constraints are to prevent what He gave for good from becoming destruction. Disobedience permits such destruction to occur.

For our good, He restricted it all to a holy, blessed, union of husband and wife. He will bless people who obey Him, and punish those who disobey Him.

Marriage according to God's terms is the ONLY fitting estate for His purpose. Neither Adam nor his offspring existed before God created them. Dare we flaunt the wisdom and benevolence of the Creator? Adam proved God's warning valid: dare we ignore Him?

The blessings of God are evident in marriages that honor Him. The curse, and the ruin that attends it, are evident outside of God's blessing.

The obligations in Marriage are great. They require our best conduct. Every marriage requires diligent, and constant attention and watchfulness. We must work to maintain and nurture our family. We are obligated to provide for our family. That is sometimes difficult. According to the Lord Jesus, the world is to be a better place because we are here.

Now think of our children. It should sober us to know that every baby born to mankind will exist for ever; either in heaven or in the Lake of Fire. Babies ought NOT to be conceived out side of a Godly marriage. Every parent shall give account to God for their children.

Babies need not only the love and care of both parents, they also need the love and care of God, the Creator. They can gain it in a Godly marriage. Children are exposed to a deadly threat when they are reared without reverence for God. They're exposed not only to the social ills of our time, but also to eternal ruin.

How deeply people hurt and pine away in their ruin, because they don't live within God's will.

The Scripture says that the way of the transgressor is hard.

In the Law of Moses, God offered some help for problems in marriages. It was to relieve and prevent injustice, cruelty, and distresses that arise in marriages. Israel disobeyed, and their history is a lesson to everyone on the results of disobedience. God later removed the Law of Moses and brought in the New Testament, so that through faith in Jesus Christ we can live according to His will.

God had a good reason for His careful provision in Marriage. It was not just to keep people from having 'fun'! It was to safeguard people and assure them of happiness and security. John 3:16 abundantly proves that God seeks the best welfare for all of mankind: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him might not perish, but have everlasting life."

Mark what the Lord Jesus said about marriage in Matthew 19:5-6. "...for this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." Such a marriage is more than a tradition.

According to Jesus Christ, God intended that the marriage of a man and a woman is to be permanent in this world. God intended that the Godly children of such parents should bless the world. While He was on the earth, Jesus also expressed His love for children and blessed those that were brought to Him.

"And they brought young children to Him, that He should touch them: and His disciples rebuked those that brought them.

Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. And He took them up in His arms, put His hands upon them, and blessed them." Mark 10:13-16.

In Matthew 18:6, Jesus also said that it would be better to have a mill stone hung around your neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea, than to offend one of the little ones that believe on Him. Does that sound like He is indifferent about the murder of babies which is commonly called "Abortion"?