Married for God by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: REL012050/REL012030/REL019000
Publisher: Crossway
Published: 2016-08-30T00:00:00+00:00

6

What Is the Point of the Marriage Institution?

Martin had just announced his engagement, and was being congratulated at coffee time at work. He and Kathy were Christians. But although his colleagues seemed pleased, he knew that about two-thirds of them were already living quite openly with their boyfriends or girlfriends. And, to be honest, although they tried to be pleased for Martin, they couldn’t really understand why he was bothering with marriage.

One of them, Max, had been involved with his Christian Union at school and knew quite a bit about the Bible and Christian faith. Max challenged Martin (in a not unfriendly way): “We’re all pleased for you, of course. But why don’t you and Kathy just live together? It’d be much cheaper and it’s much more sensible really—much less trouble if it doesn’t work out. Or [with a hint of hostility] maybe you think the rest of us are living in sin?”

• • •

Groucho Marx, in the film Animal Crackers, said that “marriage is a great institution, but who wants to live in an institution?” A good friend of mine even proposed to his wife by asking her, with a twinkle in his eye, if she wanted to join him by coming to live in an institution! My friend was right. Marriage is a great institution. It is one of the great “givens” of the world, both in the sense that it is not negotiable (because it is given in creation) and in the sense that it is a gift of God’s grace. In this chapter we explore from the Bible why it is good, and why the boundaries and shape of marriage are a blessing. We ask, “What is the point of the marriage institution?”

In chapter 2 we saw that there are three purposes for marriage: children, relationship, and public order. And each of these is to be used in the service of God. Chapter 3 explored the purpose of children and chapters 4 and 5 the purpose and shape of the marriage relationship. We turn now to public order: marriage as a safeguard against sexual chaos.

Sex Is to Be Surrounded by the Marriage Boundary

Many people think that boundaries are not good, but annoyingly restrictive and arbitrary. The boundaries are clear: the Bible teaches consistently that sexual intimacy is good within marriage and wrong in all other contexts. In both the Old and New Testaments there are two distinct word groups. On the one hand, there are words for “adultery” or “to commit adultery.” Adultery is when a married person has sex with someone who is not their husband or wife.

The other group is usually translated “sexual immorality,” or, in older translations, “fornication.” In Greek this is the word group from which we get “pornography” (which means the portrayal of sexually immoral behavior). Sexual immorality has a broader meaning than adultery. It covers all sexual intimacy outside of marriage, including sex before marriage, sex while living together, homosexual acts, and sex with animals.

The Bible speaks consistently against these things because it understands the goodness of marriage.

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