SF: – Why is marriage so important? As long as a couple are committed to each other, why do they need the paperwork?
Ed THE best place to start is at the beginning. God made Eve as a ‘helper fit’ for Adam (Genesis 2:20). He then brought her to Adam, whose first recorded words are: ‘This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh’ (v. 23).
Verse 24 gives the core definition of marriage which is referred to a number of times throughout the rest of the Bible: ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.’ Marriage involves a man and a woman being joined together by a public commitment—joined together physically, emotionally, socially, and as the basis of a new family unit.
Throughout the rest of the Bible we see marriage in operation. Basically, it worked in the way we recognise—the two parties lived separately until the wedding day, then there was a ceremony, then they lived together.
God takes marriage very seriously. Sex outside marriage is strictly forbidden, for example Exodus 20:14, 22:16, Leviticus 20:10–20, Matthew 5:27-28, Galatians 5:19, Hebrews 13:4.
This is how Jesus put it: ‘From the beginning of creation, “God made them male and female.” “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate
(Mark 10:6–9).
Like many everyday aspects of life, it turns out that actually marriage has a deeper meaning—it’s a natural parable of something spiritual. According to Ephesians 5:22–33 marriage is a picture of Christ (the bridegroom) and the community of believers (the bride). Currently they are betrothed, waiting to come together, longing for each other and the day when they’ll be united. At Christ’s return, the celebration at the beginning of the Kingdom will be like a wedding:
Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready” (Revelation 19:6–7).