Marriage is God's idea

Jesus credits God with the idea of marriage when he speaks in Matthew's gospel, "He who created them ... said." Here Jesus is crediting God with the following words from Genesis 2:24 about marriage. "'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together let not man separate."

Two observations from Jesus' dialogue with religious and legal experts of his day are this. The rights and privileges of marriage were limited to one adult man and one adult woman. Marriage was not between an adult and an adolescent, one gender and more than one of another gender, or the same genders. Exceptions experienced later such as polygamy and divorce were not part of God's original perfect creation. The careful student will note Jesus says "what", not "whom" God has joined.

Marriage is God's idea and how God created the world to function. "Hold fast" is a succinct way of saying glued so strongly together that to separate will cause damage to both parties. God does not call everyone to marriage. However, for those led to marriage God's plan brings the most joy and the least pain.

God's plan for marriage mirrors the relationship God wants with every person; highly committed. Gary Thomas writes in Sacred Marriage, "A giant thread runs throughout Scripture comparing God's relationship to his people with the human institution of marriage." God intended marriage to picture the type of permanent relationship people could choose with Him. How different is this from today's practice of 'try before you buy'?

Scott Stanley points to research that demonstrates it is a bad idea to live together before making the marriage commitment. Emotionally the two often are not ready to make a strong, lasting commitment. A later breakup leaves emotional and psychological scars. It prevents many from attaining the full sexual potential researcher David Schnarch says is attained in the fourth, fifth and sometimes sixth decade of marriage to the same partner! Monogamy virtually eliminates being one of the two billion and growing people infected worldwide with one of 20 different STD's, most having three to four variants. Of course, it is possible to live with these and other consequences, but why?

Marriage as God created it visually demonstrates the sacrificial quality of love. God demonstrated His love for people by sending His Son, Jesus, to willingly die on the cross. It was the only way to stop the deadly virus called sin. A man and woman in marriage are called to commit to each other in sacrificial love, also.

Commitment includes constraint. Constraint keeps you moving on a particular path even when you don't want to. Commitment means giving up other choices. Someone wisely said, "You fall in love with the front end of the puppy; but it has a back end. People take it back because of problems with the back end. If it isn't working right, the front part will never be good enough."

God's idea of marriage blesses the couple, their families, and society. His way minimizes pain.

-- Dr. Randy Rowlan is pastor of First United Methodist Church. Comments are welcomed at [email protected]. The opinions expressed are those of the author.

Religion on 04/22/2015