Thoughts from The Bible

Thoughts from the Bible

Tuesday, 22 October 2024 12:25

The Wonder of Marriage

by Joey Carroll Corinth Missionary Baptist Church

I had the honor of marrying a young couple this past weekend. I have known the young man since he was a small child. The young lady I have only known for a couple of years. The two of them could not be more different. Their personalities are different. Their perspectives on particular issues are different. The way each of them was raised is different. Their church backgrounds are different. Even the countries from which they came from are different. In fact, the couple only shares two things in common that I know of – their love for each other and more recently their faith in our Lord.

The most incredible part of any Christian wedding is God’s role. The One who created the heavens and the earth created the first marriage. He designed the marriage relationship in this way, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh,” (Genesis 2:24, NASB). When our Lord was correcting the thinking of the religious leaders in His day, He explained the design of marriage even further. He says after quoting the above passage from Genesis, “So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate,” (Matthew 19:6, NASB). Our Lord put emphasis on the oneness created through the marriage covenant.

As my wife and I counseled the young couple in the weeks leading up to their wedding, we explained to them the mystery of marriage found in Ephesians chapter five. The ultimate purpose of marriage is to glorify the Lord by modeling the great accomplishment of the Gospel. What is that great accomplishment? The fact that both Christ and His bride, the church, are made one. They are one in every aspect. When God was born a man, He became like us in every way, except one – sin. And He did so in order that we might become like Him in every way, especially in regards to righteousness. And so now, we have been made one with the Son of God, and we share in all things with Him. All of this is possible through faith in the person and work of Jesus on the cross.
The oneness Christians experience is not just between Jesus and the church. The oneness also extends to those who belong to the church as members of it. Both are a result of the cross.

Paul asked a question to the church at Corinth that I am quite sure he was broken of heart over. “Has Christ been divided?” (1 Corinthians 1:13, NASB). I do not have to tell anyone that divorce is both a terrible and painful thing. But divorce is preceded by division. The two begin to act like they are not one. They live separated lives, and share very little, if anything, in common. They begin to live as if they have never been united. The church at Corinth had already begun living a separated life from her Husband. They had stopped sharing in the wisdom of their Husband, and they had started trusting in their own thinking. And when a church decides to go her way in her own wisdom, pain and division soon follow. At Corinth, not only were they separating themselves from their Husband, they were also separating themselves from one another. As Paul says, “there are quarrels among you,” (1 Corinthians 1:11, NASB).

I always use a very controversial passage in a wedding ceremony, “Wives, be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:22, NASB). Even though those words fly in the face of contemporary culture, they are very necessary in order for a wife to paint a faithful picture of the relationship between the church and her Husband. In fact, Paul will go on to say “as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything,” (Ephesians 5:24, NASB). The church and the world have both misunderstood the use and importance of this passage. Needless to say, we live in a day when the church is no longer subject to Christ in everything. Unfortunately, the church is submissive to Christ in almost nothing. And the reason that we know that to be true is because the church in our day is so divided. As I said last week, however, there is a simple way back to unity. How is that? By being subject, submissive, and obedient to the word of God in everything.