Marriage Matters

Definitions are important; in fact, they are crucial to getting things right. 

The other day I heard a father tell how he, his wife, and some of their children went to the grocery store, voting unanimously that the 12-year old sibling-tormentor could stay home alone.
  

When they got home, the twelve-year-old greeted his dad with enthusiasm at the door.

Son: “Dad, I baked a cake for you while you were gone!”

Dad:  “Oh really?  Wow, that chocolate cake looks great!”  (The father said he wanted to encourage this new streak of helpfulness in his boy, and made a mental note to say something uplifting and encouraging.)  “May I have the first piece?”

His son, turned baker, cut him a big piece and put it on a plate, and handed his dad a fork. The father was determined the first thing out of his mouth must be something positive.  He took a big bite, and the first thing out of his mouth was… the cake!

Dad: “Tell me, did you use a recipe?”

Son:  “Yes, Dad.”

Dad:  “Did you follow the recipe?”

Son:  “Yes, Dad.  I don’t know what went wrong.”

Dad:  “May I see the recipe, please?”

Son:  Hands Dad the card and says, “See, it says to use butter, 2 cups flour, one cup sugar, 2 eggs, and a dash of salt.  The only thing was, I didn’t know what a dash was, so I figured if flour and sugar are measured by the cup, I’d use a cup of salt.”

Definitions do matter, don’t they?  When one re-defines a word, disaster results.

It breaks my heart that the definition of traditional marriage and family is under such great assault today.

Marriage is God’s idea, and He alone gets to say what it is – not you, not me.  We are His creation; He is the Creator.  The first commandment given by God to man and woman when the earth was fresh and new, in pristine condition, (long before the law was given) was His commandment and intention for marriage.  It’s the foundation for all of society, regardless of ethnicity or culture. 

This command is found in Genesis 1:26-28:  “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female, he created them.  God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.

The Bible tells how this all came about.  In Genesis 2:18, God says, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make a helper suitable for him.”  God formed all the birds and animals and brought them to Adam to be named, which he did.  “But for Adam no suitable helper was found.  So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh.  Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.  The man said, ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called “woman,” for she was taken out of man.  For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.  The man and woman were both naked and they felt no shame.”

Such is God’s design for mankind: one man and one woman to bear children in God’s image, and those children to marry a member of the opposite sex and bear more children, and so fill the earth and subdue it.  These scriptures also plainly indicate that no animal is to be used for sex (bestiality).  Indeed, God later gives written command against such practice, including man lying with man, and woman with woman, or other perversions of God-given sexuality.  It is an abomination to Him.   

God told Moses to speak to the Israelites and tell them not to copy the Egyptians and their sexual practices.  God plainly says in Leviticus 18:22 – 25, “Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.  Do not have sexual relations with an animal or defile yourself with it.  A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion.  Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled.  Even the land was defiled, so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants…and if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you.”

Why the push to change the definition of marriage?  Why the blasé attitude toward God’s design and commandment?  Proverbs 29:18 says, “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint.”  People don't know who God is.

Those who claim to love God must love what He loves and hate what He hates.  (Psalm 97:10)

Because they wish to be affirmed in their deception, I’ve heard the argument by professing Christians justifying homosexual behavior saying that “we aren’t under the law anymore.  We don’t keep the dietary laws and clothing rules for the priesthood.  Christian women don’t wear a covering on their heads like it says in I Corinthians 11:13-16.  So why should we pay any attention to the laws regarding sex?" 

My answers are these:

• Is it okay with God to murder, steal, bear false witness in a court of law (or anywhere else), worship an idol of wood or stone, misuse the name of God, commit adultery, covet your neighbor’s wife or anything he has, etc?  Is it okay to practice pedophilia and rape because one is disposed toward it?  Of course not.  Society can’t be sustained where there is chaos of every kind.  It would be hell on earth.  God gave us these moral laws of behavior to sustain an honorable, orderly society.  God set government in place for our benefit, as Romans 13:1-7 states. 

• The priesthood laws of wearing garments made a certain way with only certain fibers, the washings, sacrifices, and construction of the tabernacle were all types and shadows of the coming Messiah and are replete with spiritual meaning. Jesus is the fulfillment of those ritualistic laws, and they don’t apply to the Christian.

• Old Testament laws about food are addressed by Jesus.  In Mark 7:14-16, “Jesus called the crowd to him and said, ‘Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a man can make him “unclean” by going into him.  Rather, it is what comes of a man that makes him “unclean.”   The end of verse 19 says “In saying this, Jesus declared all foods “clean.”   Jesus was saying that the thoughts and desires emanating from the heart is what causes evil behavior and defiles the person.  The Apostle Paul also talks about the dispute over foods and Jewish holidays and the Sabbath day in Romans 14.

• Concerning women wearing the head covering, the Apostle Paul said, “If it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut or shaved off, she should cover her head.”  That was a sign of a loose woman in that culture.  The customary practice for women in church worship was to have their head covered.  (I Corinthians 11: 1-16)  Today most women, except in Middle Eastern cultures, cut their hair.  It’s not a sign of disgrace.  The head covering was a cultural practice – not a moral law.  God never talks about it.

I believe people are guilty of misusing God’s name when they say He approves of something He doesn’t approve of, or vice-versa.  God’s Genesis commandment of marriage and its definition stands; Jesus hasn’t changed.  We can’t have some “new Jesus” who morphed from the One we used to know – the only sinless Sovereign Son of God Who is Sovereign.  Either He is God or He isn’t.  Either we abide by His moral law, or our society goes down the toilet.  

And let me just say, we do not keep the moral law of God in order to obtain salvation and entrance into heaven.  No one can ever please God that way.  No; we put our faith in Jesus who kept the law perfectly for us and was the sinless sacrifice for our own sins.  We want to keep the moral law and live righteously because we love God.  We love what He loves, and hate what He hates.  Our behavior is the fruit, not the root, of our salvation.

Consider this: if God had ever intended marriage to be between two men or two women, He would have surely have given instructions for such a relationship.  But He never did, nor did He ever intend that; for there would be no children, no offspring for God.  The earth would not be filled as He commanded; He would have gone against His own commandment.  Unthinkable!  Instead, we have plenty of instructions from God how a man should treat his wife, and instructions for the family.

Hebrews 13:4 says, "Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral."

Ephesians 5:31 says, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”

In Mark 10:5-8 Jesus answered the Pharisees’ question about divorce and why Moses permitted them to divorce their wives.  Jesus says, “It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law.  But at the beginning of creation God made them male and female.  For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.  So they are no longer two, but one.  Therefore what God has joined together, let not men separate.” 

Matthew 19:4-6 says, “ ‘Haven’t you read,’ He [Jesus] replied, ‘that at the beginning the Creator made them male and female, and said, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh?  So they are no longer two, but one.  Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”  

And I add: let not the definition of marriage be torn apart, either.  Let's keep the definition of marriage straight!

God bless you, dear reader!

*All Scripture taken from the NIV translation of the Bible unless otherwise noted.

Copyright © 2013 Elaine Beachy