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Marriage and the Home

Memory Verse: Gen. 2:18-25

Prayer: That God might bless us with Christ-honoring homes.

Key Verses: Matt. 19:4-9; Heb. 13:4;

Marriage is to be between one man and one woman (Gen. 2:24; Matt. 19: 5-6).  Neither is it lawful for any man to have more than one wife, nor for any woman to have more than one husband, at the same time.  Marriage was ordained for the mu­tual help (Gen. 2:18) of husband and wife, for the increase of mankind (Gen. 1:28) with a legitimate issue, and for (1Cor. 7:2,9) preventing of uncleanness.  It is the duty of Christians (1Cor. 7:39) to marry only in the Lord; and therefore such as profess saving faith should not marry with (Neh. 13:25-27) infidels or idolaters.  Neither should such as are godly be unequally yoked, by marrying with such as are wicked in their life or maintain damnable heresy.

Proverbs 22:6 - One of the great blessings that God gives is the home and the family (Ps. 68:6).  There are 139 direct references to family or families in the Bible, and more than 100 indirect references.  How much better it is that the unit of the family should exist, with its tender ties, with its safe protection for those who could not stand alone.  A chicken is able to pick its own food, with a little supervision and protection by the mother, soon after it is hatched out of the shell.  But a baby should be fed, normally, at the mother’s breast for ten or twelve months, and then must be provided for and protected and fed and clothed long years before the child is able to care for his own needs and live an independent life.  Do you not remember that wonderful song written by John Paine, “Home, Sweet Home” - there’s no place like home!

A home necessarily involves a marriage.  For some men to live together is not a home.  God planned marriage (Gen. 2:18) and that to be between one man and one woman.  God made the kind of man who needed a wife for him to be complete - one.  Marriage was ordained of God. Woman was taken out of the side of man to be his helpmeet.  God himself performed the first marriage ceremony in the Garden of Eden.  The Lord Jesus himself added His blessing to marriage by endorsing the Genesis account of the crea­tion, and the first marriage (Matt. 19:4-6). It is significant that when the Lord Jesus, our Saviour, came into this world, He was born into a home (Matt. 1:18-25).  How Jesus honored the home and made it a holy institution by choosing to be born into a home and to live in home all His youthful years.  Marriage is the oldest human in­stitution and has been blessed of God for our good.

 Some people actually do not want to be bound by vows of marriage.  They want easy divorce when lust is somewhat satisfied, when the fires of passion burn low.  They do not want to regard marriage as a responsibility.  They do not want to obey the laws of God.  They do not want to accept the responsibilities of children.   Sinful men have always perverted marriage.  There has been polygamy.  Today there is trial living together without the benefit of marriage. But even many fowl and beasts mate for life.

 There are many good and sensible reasons for marriage and the establishment of a godly home. Marriage is intended of God to be the answer to a lonely heart and to supply fellowship and comfort and joy.  Everything in life is much better when it is shared with someone that we love (Matt. 18:19; Ec. 4: 9,11 ).  God made man and woman to work together, and no one is at his best who does not have his work complemented by a partner of the other sex.  God Himself has given a hunger, a biological necessity that presses men and women toward marriage.  That urge is normal.  It is true that sex de­sire can be perverted, can be unholy and wicked, but that is not the normal situation that God desires for His people (Rom. 1:26).  Love, courtship, marriage, mating, child-bearing -- these are the normal futures of normal men and women (1Cor. 7:1-2).  To avoid fornication is one of the reasons for marriage (1Cor. 7:9).  Certainly honorable, good people can remain continent and can live separate from the opposite sex when that is necessary.  Yet the Scripture is clear that in ordinary cases, to avoid fornication and to avoid the burning of unfulfilled desires, marriage is proper.  Most people ought to marry for the propagation of the race, for the bearing and rearing of children (Gen. 1:28, 9:1).  We fulfill a holy duty and destiny in propagating the race.  A man and woman in marriage and mating become partakers with God in the mysteries and mira­cles of creation itself (1Pet. 3:7).  We bring into the world not only a little body but an immortal soul.

 Marriage is intended to be happy.  People fall in love and marry.  That first love should be maintained at all costs (Pro. 18:22, 19:14, 31:10-12).  Marriage is a di­vine institution, a holy trust from God, therefore Christian people should marry only Christians (2Cor. 6:14-16).  Many a Christian girl has married an unsaved man and in her foolish heart thought, “After we are married, he will never drink again.  He says he loves me so much he will go to church with me, etc.”  Such girls have found later to their deep distress, that they married an ungodly man.  A saved person and an unbeliever cannot have real fellowship.  How wicked, how certain to lead to heart­ache it is, when a Christian turns their temple of God over to the control and whim of an unconverted child of Satan.

 When you are married to the wrong person you cannot make the situation right by getting a divorce (1Cor. 7:10-16).  When the other party dies you are at liberty to remarry, but only in the Lord (1Cor. 7:39).  Solomon married many strange women who led him astray in his fellowship and worship of the one true God (1Kings. 11:l-4; II Chron. 8:11).  In Nehemiah’s day a remnant of Israel was brought back from captivity and intermarried with the heathen people about them (Neh. 13:23-27).

 Let every young couple who marries, plan and pray that they may have their home blessed with children (Gen. 1:28, 9:1; Ps. 127:3-5).  When God blessed Adam and Eve, He blessed them as a married couple and they were commanded to have children.  Today we have those who are calling for zero population growth and also that wicked practice of abortion that has murdered millions in just a few years.  They do not believe that God can provide for His own (Matt. 6,25-33).

 Certainly God wants the population of the earth to be largely as Christian in character as possible.  Children from Christian homes, taught to love and serve the Lord, ought to be the salt that saves society.  God gives us much instruction for our training of children (Pro. 22:6,15; 19:18; 13:24; De. 6:7; Heb. 12:9-10).  Normal people desire children, and children bring blessing into a godly home (Gen. 4:1; 21:6-7; 29:32-33; 30:1).  Children satisfy the inborn craving of a girl to be a mother and of a boy to be a father and have his name carried on.  Parents experience a growth in character that is impossible without having children.  The mother who waits nine months and goes through travail in bringing another soul into the world, changes and is never the same again.  She suddenly becomes a mature person.  Children bind husband and wife together, making more sure the marriage tie.

 God put stress on children honoring and obeying their parents (Ex. 20:12; Eph. 6:1-3; Col. 3:20; Ex. 21:17, 21:15).  It cannot be an accident that a generation of rebellious wives and irresponsible husbands and a generation of disobedient, law-breaking children should appear in the world at the same time (Mark 7:6-13).