The Significance of Marriage - Genesis 2:24-25
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1 The Mighty One, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. 2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.
22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. 25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
Introduction
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24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
Continue to look at what the Bible teaches about marriage in particular its significance for unbelievers and believers. Marriage is provided by God as part of his loving purpose for humanity since the beginning of creation.
Marriage is enriched by God for all who have faith in the Gospel, for through the saving grace of Christ and the renewal of the Holy Spirit husband and wife can love one another as Christ loves them. Marriage is thus a gift and calling of God and is not to be undertaken lightly or from selfish motives but with reverence and dedication, with faith in the enabling power of Christ, and with due awareness of the purpose for which it is appointed by God. Marriage is appointed that there may be lifelong companionship, comfort and joy between husband and wife. It is appointed as the right and proper setting for the full expression of physical love between man and woman. It is appointed for the ordering of family life, where children—who are also God’s gifts to us— may enjoy the security of love and the heritage of faith. It is appointed for the well-being of human society, which can be stable and happy only where the marriage bond is honoured and upheld.
6 But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ 7 ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, 8 and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.
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1. Separation v24
1. Separation v24
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24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
4 He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?
7 ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, 8 and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.
31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”
What about parents?
12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
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2. Joining v24
2. Joining v24
24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
a. Hold Fast
a. Hold Fast
24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
20 You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear.
22 For if you will be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do, loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him,
4 You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him.
20 loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”
5 Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and to cling to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.”
9 For the Lord has driven out before you great and strong nations. And as for you, no man has been able to stand before you to this day.
22 The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23 When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose,
9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
b. One Flesh
b. One Flesh
24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
8 and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.
Marriage does make sexual relations legal and above board and does not leave one with a guilty conscience. But marriage is more than that. Likewise, marriage is more than an institution designed to propagate the human race. One of the duties within the marriage bond is to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, but that is not the first and only reason. Some married couples find they cannot have children. Does that mean the marriage is finished? Or what about the time when the woman has passed the age of child-bearing and the children have grown up and left the home? There must be more to marriage than the producing and rearing of children. We are only too aware these days, when people act like animals, that it does not need marriage to propagate the human race. Marriage is more than legalising mating. Philip Eveson[3]
“They become one flesh.” This does not denote merely the sexual union that follows marriage, or the children conceived in marriage, or even the spiritual and emotional relationship that it involves, though all are involved in becoming one flesh. Rather it affirms that just as blood relations are one’s flesh and bone (cf. Comment on v 23), so marriage creates a similar kinship relation between man and wife. Gordon Wenham[4]
c. A Binding Commitment
c. A Binding Commitment
I CALL UPON THESE PERSONS HERE PRESENT / TO WITNESS THAT I, Alhaji Rashid, / TAKE YOU, Lucian Conteh/ TO BE MY LAWFUL WEDDED WIFE, / TO HAVE AND TO HOLD / FROM THIS DAY FORWARD; / FOR BETTER, FOR WORSE, / FOR RICHER, FOR POORER, / IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH, /TO LOVE AND TO CHERISH, / TILL DEATH US DO PART, / ACCORDING TO GOD’S HOLY LAW. / IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD, / AND THE CONGREGATION AS WITNESSES, /I PLEDGE TO YOU MY FAITHFULNESS.
I CALL UPON THESE PERSONS HERE PRESENT / TO WITNESS THAT I, Lucian Conteh, / TAKE YOU, Alhaji Rashid, / TO BE MY LAWFUL WEDDED HUSBAND, / TO HAVE AND TO HOLD / FROM THIS DAY FORWARD; /FOR BETTER, FOR WORSE, / FOR RICHER, FOR POORER, / IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH, / TO LOVE, CHERISH, AND OBEY, / TILL DEATH US DO PART, / ACCORDING TO GOD’S HOLY LAW. /IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD, / AND THE CONGREGATION AS WITNESSES, / I PLEDGE TO YOU MY FAITHFULNESS.
13 And this second thing you do. You cover the Lord’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. 14 But you say, “Why does he not?” Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.
2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. 3 Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.
30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.
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3. Openness v25
3. Openness v25
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25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
This verse immediately prepares us for the next chapter and reminds us that shame has to do with sin. Their lack of shame was not a moral weakness but an indication of their sinless perfection. Premarital sex often results in feelings of disgust, distrust and betrayal. Marriage alone proves the right setting for such openness and bodily union. Philip Eveson[5]
9 Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun.
The Song of Songs takes up the theme of the first love song and celebrates this aspect of creation. Despite the Fall it is still a wonderful blessing and we are to make the most of it during this fleeting life, as Ecclesiastes 9:9 reminds us. Marital love is beautiful. Such passages of Scripture provide positive answers to the exploitation of sex for selfish ends and at the same time serve as a corrective to asceticism. They show that sexual union in marriage is not an inferior state. It is not a concession to human weakness. That was the teaching of the Middle Ages and it has persisted ever since in some circles. Physical love within the marriage bond is not something unclean. It is good and wholesome (see Heb. 13:4). Philip Eveson[6]
“Let marriage be held in honour among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.” (Hebrews 13:4, ESV)
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4. Christian Marriage – Ephesians 5:22-33
4. Christian Marriage – Ephesians 5:22-33
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22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.
a. Submission v22
a. Submission v22
22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
b. Calvary Love v25
b. Calvary Love v25
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body.
c. Christ and the Church
c. Christ and the Church
32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.
5 For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called.
Conclusion
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4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.