God's Purpose For Marriage

In the last entry, I made the point that God, at creation, was the one who designed marriage. In light of the concerted effort by some in our society to redefine marriage, it is important for us to go back and see what God's original purpose was. So what was God's purpose?

Now certainly, since marriage is such an important human institution, there can be many purposes; and indeed there are. Last time we looked at two of them. God said that it was not good for man to be alone, so He created the woman to be helpmeet, meaning his complement and completer. If God had simply wanted to create companionship for Adam, He could have brought him a dog to roam the fields with or a good buddy to go bowling with. God didn't! But that wasn't God's intention. God wanted to make man complete, so He created the woman.

Also, we looked at the fact that God created us in His image, and especially that it was as male and female He created us. We made the point that together, as male and female, joined in the marriage bond, we more fully reflect the image of God.

But that verse that we looked at, Genesis 1:27-28, also alludes to another important reason for marriage. Reading the verses again, it says, "So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth.'" Interestingly, the first command God gave this couple was to procreate - to join God in the creative process by creating new human life. Marriage is intended to be the fountain from which children and families spring forth.

Malachi 2:15 adds to that. It is another verse that talks about the purpose for marriage. It asks the rhetorical question, "But did He not make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring." The first question asks, did God create the man and the woman and unite them together as one in marriage? The obvious answer from Genesis 2:18-25 is, Yes! God created the woman specifically to be man's complementary mate. But why did He do it? that is the question that is answered here. He seeks godly offspring. God intended marriage to be fruitful - as a place where children can be born and can be nurtured with a mother and a father - the full complement of His image. Certainly, sometimes in God's plan a specific couple is childless, but the purpose of marriage is to bear and raise offspring for God. By calling them godly, the verse assumes that the parents, the mother and father, will teach their children about God and train them to love and serve Him. God's desire is for a world to be populated by people trained to worship Him.

Same sex relationships are by definition barren. If same sex couples are allowed to adopt children, the best they can do is model only one half of the image of God. And even saying that, what they really model is rebellion against God's plan for marriage, since His plan was for one woman and for one man to be joined. Same sex marriages can never fulfill God's purpose. In order to fulfill God's plan, the marriage has to conform to God's design.