What Does The Bible Say About Marriage?
What does the Bible say about marriage? In this article, we’ll talk about seven things the Bible says about marriage. We’re going to go through these points quickly, so I’m not going to list out all the Bible verses because we’d be here for hours.
1) Point one of What the Bible says about marriage is that marriage was created by God and is good, so God created humans in His image.
So it shouldn’t be a surprise that God gave humans ingenuity and the ability to create and think of things and then bring them into existence, so to speak, in the idea of like governments are the way society should be structured or certain cultural practices.
Humans can create certain things because God’s given us the ability to do that. But here’s the thing: marriage wasn’t an idea created by man. It’s not something that we thought of and instituted.
Marriage is a biblical principle that was right at the beginning of creation. For example, Genesis 2:24 says this: a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
So you see, in that passage, it doesn’t say that a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to a woman, and then they created marriage down the line. It says the man will leave his parents and then be united with his wife. So you see right there that God is actually the author of marriage. It also says that marriage is good. Everything God created is good.
For example, in proverbs 18:22, “he says he who finds a wife finds a good thing, and the same obviously goes for women who find a husband. They find a good thing in marriage”.
So point one, the Bible says that marriage was created by God and is good.
2) The Bible’s second thing about marriage is that it’s something not just for Christians but for the whole world. I know it’s a Christian idea, and it’s something that originated with God, but God created this for the whole world.
For example, in Genesis 1:28, God is speaking to humans when he said I’m creating you to be fruitful and multiply in to rule and subdue the earth. So marriage is not just an institution just for Christians. God wants all people called to marriage to join in the marriage covenant and bond with one another. You see this in the benefit it brings to societies.
Study after study shows that when marriage isn’t traditional, marriage isn’t emphasized in a society where society starts breaking down. So there are many benefits between having a dad and a mom helping raise kids together. It’s just super beneficial because God created it that way.
The idea of marriage falls under the theological doctrine of common Grace. Not every person on earth drinks God’s special Grace or saving Grace.
Which is when we understand and receive and put our faith in Jesus Christ to have a relationship with God through the gospel. That’s a certain Stipe of saving Grace that only Christians experience.
But there’s another form of Grace in the Bible referred to as common Grace and what that means is everything good in creating the food we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe, the sunshine, and the crops. Everything that is good is from God, and that’s common Grace.
So even if unbelievers don’t give God the recognition he deserves for good in their life, the Bible says all that is from God, so marriage falls under the principle of common Grace given to the entire world.
3) Point three, while the Bible says that marriage is for Christians and non-Christians, the Bible specifically says it should not be between an unbeliever and a believer.
The Bible calls this unequally yoked. So the Bible says that God does not want Christians to marry non-Christians. It says that in 1st Corinthians 6 verses 14 through 15 and 1st Corinthians 7 verse 39.
4) The Bible’s fourth thing about marriage is that it’s supposed to be between one man and one woman.
Every type of example you see in marriage points to this specific type of marriage. It’s the only marriage God ordains and has talked about in his words. This means that two things are for sure a sin in God’s eyes.
Polygamy, which means that there’s more than one man and one woman in the marriage, is a sin. Now you might think of the Old Testament, where there are certain Old Testament characters like King David and Solomon and all these other guys who actually had multiple lives, and that is absolutely true. But nowhere in the Bible are you gonna find that God was condoning that or commanding that.
They did that on their own God has always said to marry one woman.
Since the Bible clearly says that marriage is between one man and one woman, this also means that gay marriage is something that’s not condoned in the Bible and is a sin because it endorses homosexuality which again is a violation of the way God created humans to be paired to a husband and a wife.
5) The fifth thing that I see in the Bible about marriage is that it is a unique bond between a husband and a wife.
It says in Genesis 2:24 again that a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and become one flesh.
Every time you see an intimate relationship within the Bible, it’s always paired with commitment intimacy, and commitment is always paired in the scriptures.
That’s why premarital sex is a sin in the Bible because you have an extreme form of intimacy without the extreme commitment in the Covenant of marriage.
While premarital sex, I think, is pretty clear for most Christians and know that that’s wrong, there’s also a danger in having an emotional intimacy that crosses a line or cohabitation with someone of the opposite sex.
Cohabitation and emotional intimacy are two things that should be again reserved for the marriage.
6) Next, the Bible says that what God has joined together, man should not separate.
In other words, divorce is something that is not condoned in the scriptures except for one thing an actual sexual affair. So even when an affair happens within the marriage, the Bible doesn’t command divorce but allows for it.
7) The Bible says marriage is a symbolic representation of the relationship between Christ and the church.
It says in Ephesians 5:22 through 33 that the husband represents Christ and the wife represents the church. A husband and a wife are equally important in a relationship, but they play different roles.
A husband is supposed to lead and love his family, and a wife is supposed to love and support that leadership which you can see in the relationship between Christ and the church. Christ is ultimately our leader, and the church is following Christ and honouring him.
So marriage is a uniquely special relationship that God uses to show us something special about Christ and His Church.
