Our society does not understand the biblical view of marriage. The best evaluation I can find for it in the mass-media world we live in is that it’s a “meaningful relationship.” It doesn’t even have to be between a man and a woman it just needs to be “meaningful.” But nobody knows what that means. Sometimes, it applies to sexual activity. Sometimes it applies to emotional bonds, sometimes it simply means compatible personalities, and sometimes it means a profitable (financially) arrangement. With these as the basis of the idea of “meaningful,” it’s not uncommon to find that those bonds don’t always hold a couple together. Furthermore, there’s a tendency to promote the single life as the superior life. The fancy-free, footloose life of the situation comedies single stars proclaims their own view of marriage. It is not uncommon to see people yearning after their single friend’s lifestyles and feeling trapped themselves.
To understand God’s purposes for marriage, we must understand what the Bible says. We must accept it, embrace it, defend it, and proclaim it. As I studied the Bible in preparation for a series I preached some time ago on The Home and Family. I recognized several important things about marriage we should notice. The first observation is that marriage is a “gift” from God. No, it’s a “good gift.” In Genesis, God proclaimed all his creation “good”, but after the creation of man, “male and female,” he pronounced it “very good.” Genesis 1:21 says, “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.” Proverbs 18:22 affirms this when it says, “He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord.” The word for “favor” is the same word for “gift.” The Contemporary English Version translates this verse, “A man’s greatest treasure is his wife— she is a gift from the LORD.” This truth applies to both sexes. Don’t ever try to remove the totality of humanity from the basic principles in scripture. Although the scriptures sometimes address men and women separately, their basic “perspectives” on life and purpose are universal. As a wife is a good gift from God to the man, a husband is a good gift from God to the woman.
Marriage is not a social convenience, a legal fabrication, or a governmental invention. One writer put it this way, “The Bible makes it quite clear in the Genesis account of creation that God instituted the first marriage: a man and a woman united in the will of God for companionship, sexual relations, and the bearing and rearing of children. The Bible says God surveyed all he had created and declared it to be “good” (Genesis 1:31).” One man and one woman together in the biblical model of marriage is “very good.” You see, marriage is a “God” thing, and it is a “good thing.” After fifty-five years of marriage this year (2024), I have to say the greatest gift God has given to me in this life is a loving wife to share every day with.