Marriage as a part of Worship

Members of a Covenant Community have responsibilities to one another ()

Explanation: Malachi turns the attention from the Spiritual Leaders back to the people. He transitions by asking a rhetorical question dealing with God as their Father. In essence, what he is stating, is that all of them, as members of the covenant community, are on the same team. They all worship the One True God, and they all abide by the same rules.

Because they are members of the same covenant, their actions impact other members. Within the community, there is no concept of the “rugged individual” who does things his own way. This is an American way of thinking, not a biblical way.

Important Note: These comments are being delivered to the members of a covenant community who share a faith heritage. This is not a call to Universalism.

Having established the community aspect, the prophet then asks them the reason why some are being faithless to the covenant. He points out that an individual’s sin negatively impacts other members (to one another)

Illustrate: Marine Corp method of dealing with a goof up. The entire squad is punished.

Argument: A member of a faith community has responsibility to fellow members. To be part of a fellowship is to be part of something bigger than yourself, which is a privilege. Along with the privilege comes responsibility.

Aichan was privileged to be part of the covenant community and personally benefited from God’s blessings on the people. He selfishly decided to act for himself without regard to his covenant responsibilities and as a result of his sin, 36 of his brother Israelites were killed ()

Application: We have covenant responsibility to one another. We are to love one another, pray for one another, and to care for one another. Sometimes that means being willing to confront a brother or sister in love.

Because Marriage is a covenantal relationship, believers are not to marry unbelievers ()

Explanation: The prophet begins to discuss how marriage relates to worship. He is going to talk about two different ways some of the individual community members were profaning marriage. And in both situations, the prophet connects the sin of the individuals in the arena of marriage and shows how it impacts the worship of the community as a whole.

He begins with the issue of unequally yoked marriages. He is calling out those members of the covenant community who have taken foreign wives who worship false idols. This practice was expressly forbidden to members of the covenant community under the law (; ) and it was warned against time and time again (,; ; ). God knew that marriage to pagans would draw away the hearts of his people. God is jealous for the hearts of His people () and His covenant restrictions were for their protection and good.

Argument: We need to be clear on what is under discussion: God is prohibiting the marriage of one of His people to a member of a pagan, unbelieving nation. He is not prohibiting marriage between people of different ethnicities. As long as both individuals are believers, and members of the opposite sex, it is not a sin to enter into a covenant marriage. While this passage and others (cf. ) are used to declare that God is against “mixed-race” marriages, the statement has no biblical support!

First of all, there is only one race of people: humans. There are no different races. We use the term race as a social construct, but the reality is that we are all humans; some of us are just of different ethnicities (tribe, tongue, and nation as found in ). It is an unbecoming sin of prejudice to state that it is sinful for a white person to marry a black person.

Second, the issue for Christians is that of having a shared faith in Jesus. In the NT, God repeats His prohibition for believers marrying unbelievers (). The issue is not of ethnicity, but of a common faith.

Application: Believers are not to enter into “missionary” dating. Yes, there are real life stories when a spouse comes to faith in Christ years later, but that is not the norm. And, more importantly, God forbids it.

Young people, if you are Christian, you have a moral and spiritual obligation to only date fellow believers. Don’t even start on the non-believer dating track and pray for the best. This is something you do not need to pray about: no need to ask God for His direction because He has already given it.

Because Marriage is a covenantal relationship, believers are not to enter into divorce ()

Explanation: The prophet then addresses the second area of sinful behavior in the area of marriage: that of divorce. It seems that some of these men were actually divorcing their covenant wives in order to be able to marry the pagan wives! What a mess!

Malachi calls them out for their hypocrisy on this issue. They were actually asking why God was withholding His blessings in worship when they were acting deceitful and profaning the covenant. Once again, the prophet makes the connection between genuine worship and fidelity in marriage.

Argument: God is the One who ordained and established the covenant of marriage (); and Jesus, as God in the flesh, upheld this standard (). God’s design from the beginning was for one man and one woman to live together as one flesh in the marriage.

God’s design for marriage between believers is the human relationship that most closely mirrors His relationship with His individual children (). Just as a husband is to let nothing come between him and his wife, the believer is to let nothing come between himself and his God.

The covenantal nature of marriage is the reason of why the issue of divorce is so detrimental. When married believers divorce they are actually demonstrating the breaking of covenant - that which was never intended to be broken.

It was never intended to be broken because it defeats the purpose for which God established the covenant in the first place - godly offspring (v. 15). When a couple divorces, the entire family is thrown into disarray. Counselors like to state that children are resilient and they will be fine, but study after study highlights the negative effects of divorce.

The Hebrew of verses 15 and 16 is difficult, and this can be seen by the different wording of these verses in various versions (KJV, NIV, ESV, NASB). The main emphasis, however is clear: divorce does violence on the covenant family, and God is grieved when it takes place.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The text, especially as rendered in the KJV and the NASB declare that God hates divorce. It does not state that He hates divorced people. God hates divorce because of the violence and harm it does to the family unit

This text is not the only place in Scripture where the issue of divorce is mentioned. In the passage, Jesus gives further guidelines for marriage, and then in 1 & 2 Corinthians, Paul gives additional conditions that govern marriage.

Immediately following Jesus’ declaration of the lifetime nature of covenant marriage (), the Pharisees counter with the divorce regulations in the Mosaic law (). Jesus reminds them that this was a concession due to the hardness of their hearts, that it was not part of God’s original design. The issue for divorce in dealt with sexual immorality, and Jesus upholds that same standard in v. 9 “whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another commits adultery.

Divorce is a serious matter in the eyes of a holy God, and it is not to be entered into lightly or quickly. The only grounds given by Jesus is that of sexual infidelity - unfaithfulness on the part of one of the marriage partners. Note that this is a concession, it is not an automatic. God’s heart is always for reconciliation, and there is no marriage between believers that cannot be reconciled if both parties are willing to repent, where necessary, and commit to obeying God’s precepts.

Divorce is a serious matter in the eyes of a holy God, and it is not to be entered into lightly or quickly.

Paul restates the marriage principle in and he upholds the standard of no divorce. In the next few verses he gives the marriage standard for mixed marriages - believers with unbelievers. These mixed marriages were the result of evangelism and the gospel. Pagans were hearing the Gospel and many were coming to faith in Christ. Sometimes this occured in an existing marriage between two pagans. Now that one of the spouses was a believer, he or she was in a mixed marriage. Paul gives Holy Spirit inspired guidelines for these marriages. The believer is not allowed to divorce the unbeliever - no exceptions given. If the unbeliever chooses to leave (I didn’t sign up for this Jesus stuff!) the believer is to let him or her depart in peace (1 Cor 712-16)

Application: Covenant marriage is extremely important in the eyes of God, and it has an impact on our corporate worship. Believers who are married to believers are called to remain married. This is for the benefit of the two spouses, their family, and their covenant community. Marriage is God’s design for human flourishing, and we dismember it at our peril! We should “guard ourselves in our spirit and not be faithless to the wife of our youth” (Mal 2:15)