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Why Marriage?

Marriage is God’s idea. Marriage is an institution created by God, even though popular culture has begun to misinterpret the purpose for which God created marriage. Marriage was and is God’s Idea. The purpose why God Instituted marriage is for us to understand the relationship between God and man, for companionship, to display God’s oneness, to reproduce our kind, and to establish God’s kingdom here on earth.

“Understanding and Living in God’s Original Purpose for men and women is crucial for the right relationships between husbands and wives. If we fight against God’s purpose, we will be unfulfilled and frustrated. He made us the way we are for His purposes and our benefit” ~ Dr. Myles Munroe.

Marriage is the intimate union and equal partnership between a man and a woman. Though man and woman are equal as God’s children, they are created with significant differences that allow them to give themselves and receive the other as gifts.

The Purpose of Marriage is to understand the relationship between God and man. 

Ephesians 5:22-29 instructs husbands to love their wives as Christ loves the church. “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 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. In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. No one ever hated his flesh but nourished and cherished it, just as Christ does the church.

God’s purpose for marriage is that men will love their wives as God loves the church. Therefore, the relationship between a  husband and a wife should look like God’s relationship with a man.

Some of the ways Christ loves the Church

Christ loves the church with a Sacrificial love– Christ gave up himself for man’s sake. He died on the cross to save us from sin. 

Christ loves the church with a sanctifying love- Christ gave himself up for the church. Then he sanctifies her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word. “you can use this word in a few different ways, but here it refers to being devoted to God. This tells us that Jesus sanctifies his church by setting her apart to the service of God”. 

Christ loves the church with a purifying love- God wants in the end that he will present the church he sacrificed and sanctified with no spot or wrinkle or blemish for eternity. God loves the church the way husbands are to love their wives. The purpose of marriage is that the husband and wife will grow in holiness. In addition, it should be a way to draw closer to God and each other. 

The Purpose of Marriage is for Companionship

God’s purpose for marriage is companionship. In the first marriage in the bible between Adam and Eve, God emphasized that it is not suitable for man to be alone; he told him he would find him a helper. Someone who would assist him in reaching his given purpose. Someone who will be a companion to walk life together. Man is a relational being and, as such, seeks to have someone who will be a part of their lives and also grow with them, and God designed marriage to do that. 

Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper.” Now out of the ground, the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 

The man gave names to all livestock and the birds of the heavens and every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper fit for him. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept, he took one of his ribs and closed its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman brought her to the man. Genesis 2:18-22

Oneness Displays God’s Purpose for Marriage

One of God’s purposes for marriage is to display Oneness and unity. In Genesis, the Bible says that a man would leave his father and mother and join his wife, and they will become one flesh. God instituted marriage so man could display the unity God had in mind in creating man. When our unions express this oneness, all who contact us get a glimpse of unity, harmony, and a hopeful reminder of what will be when those who believe are once again one with God.

Then the man said, “This, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman because the woman was taken out of Man.”Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. Genesis 2:23-24

The Purpose of Marriage is for man to Reproduce and establish God’s Kingdom on earth. 

So God created man in His image; in the image of God, he created him; male and female, he created them. God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. “Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and every living creature that moves on the ground.”  Genesis 1:27-28. One of God’s purposes for marriage is reproduction. So God put Adam and Eve in the garden and told them to be fruitful and multiply. He said to man-  have dominion over the other creatures on the earth.