The Marriage Union

"The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."Gen:2:18.

A living continuing growing maturing love relationship with Jesus Christ is truly the answer to everything in this life. It is out of , and from this relationship with the great God thru Jesus that we learn how to have other relationship with others.

 We From Him

From the very beginning the Creator God has intended that we should live in relationship and in community with him and with others. In creating us, the Lord God used his very self as the pattern from which all of us derive our particular characteristics. 


"Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness",
 "So God created mankind in his own image,

in the image of God he created them;

male

 This tells us that each gender finds it's common source in and from God himself, that each express who God is to one another. This is why God has ordained that the marriage union and relationship be composed of two persons of opposite gender, that what one lacks the other supplies. In this way we come to experience who God is and his unconditional love that he has for and toward humanity within the most personal and intimate of all relationships.

Not Good to Be Alone

We are told in the  inspired creation epic of Genesis that God had declared that humanity should live in relationship.

"Then the Lord God said "It is not good for man to be alone" Gen:2:18 

That is, it is not good that we should live without relationships and community. Understand that God was not creating an "institution" but rather, ordaining a relationship.

"So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

The man said,

“This is now bone of my bones

and flesh of my flesh;

she shall be called ‘woman,’

for she was taken out of man.”

That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.(21-24)

 God brings forth "another" out of "the man" stressing that they together are "the same" yet, "different"  but still finding their common origins with God himself. They are "distinct" ,yet , truly not "separate" and of the same "essence " .

 The bonding in this relation was intended by God to be,  that they each were to be free to be who they are,  and who God had intended them to be. With in this relationship there was to be unconditional love for each other and a close mutual sharing of their selves to and for each other. This was to be an equal and mutually edifying relationship together.  

"Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame."(25)

  God's Purpose

To teach humanity about what relationship with God is about , he gave us the sacred relationship of marriage.
The Apostle Paul wrote of this very relationship to the primitive Apostolic church two thousand years ago, and to all of us gown thru the ages, regarding marriage and God's ordained purpose.  

Paul begins his discourse on the marriage relationship with the admonition for mutual deference on the past of husband and wife.

"Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ."Eph:5:21

 Often this admonition is over looked by one or both of those in the marriage union. Paul is saying that each should put the other first over their own selves and to graciously serve one another.

Paul continues with some of the most  often quoted instructions on the husband wife relationship, but however, all that follows should be understood in the light of the Apostles comments of mutual submission.

"Wives, submit (or better understood to defer) yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything." (22-24)

 This is not a "master servant relationship",  this is a wife knowing that her husband has her best interest in mind in regard to all things  and that she is able to be assured that he is doing all that he is able to protect their family and to be responsible toward and for them.

 Paul then turns to the role of the husband and the mystery of the  living symbol of the marriage union; that it is to demonstrate the same love which Jesus has and does extend toward toward the Church this mystery has come down even from the very dawn of creation and joining of the first man and woman.

"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” (25-31) 


These words place the burden of  out flowing love on the shoulder of the husband to be and to do all that is with his ability to put his wife first in all things ; laying down his own wants, desires, plans, resources, time and even his very life. This far from the idea that the husband commands his wife and subjugating her to his wants and demands. The husband is rather to be the kind of husband toward his wife as Jesus is to the church.

Paul than makes this explanation of the living symbol of marriage

"This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church." (32) 


Here Paul gives a profound , but cryptic ,  statement in calling marriage "a profound mystery"  . The Greek word which Paul chooses, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit  , is "Maga" and is translated as "great or "profound". The word "Maga"  was a military word."Maga" was used to describe the place on the field of battle where to opposing forces collided in a great conflict. What is Paul telling us with the use of the word "Maga" ?

Paul is tell us that the Christian marriage is ordained to stand on the point a salience to advance the Kingdom of God against the Kingdom of this world. This speaks of the husband and wife union with in the economy of God as being on the very forefront of advancing the Kingdom thru their sacred union together, this is so that others around them can peer into their lives and see what a relationship with Jesus Christ looks like. This is so that others can see the unconditional boundless love, forgiveness, graciousness, and care that Jesus shows to his Church and the selfless giving that Jesus shows to each and all.

"However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, (33a)


This how a man is to relate to his wife, showing her all the selfless love and graces and forgiveness and care that Jesus shows to his Church.
 
"and the wife must respect her husband".(33b)

This far from being just instruction for the wife alone that a "wife must respect her husband" . The role of the husband is still in view in the passive sense.  This instruction to the wife assumes that her husband will be the kind of man which she can respect in all his conduct toward her and others. A godly man is a man who's focus is upon Jesus Christ above all else.

Selfless Love

The Great God, the Holy Trinity , Father , Son and Holy Spirit,  has demonstrated selfless love to all of humanity thru the giving of his Holy Son Jesus Christ.  This loves is a love is outward and unconditional toward others , it is the very love of Jesus. This giving of Jesus, was more than "self sacrifice" it was "sacrifice of the self". Jesus gave over his whole self to be in accord with the divine perfect will of the Father for the sake of  all humanity.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." Jhn:3:16

This tells us that God gave Christ, his Son, so that we might have life everlasting in a love relationship.

In the same way Jesus faced the cross so that we might have eternal life.

"For the joy set before him he endured the cross," Heb:12:2b

The joy which our Lord Jesus experienced was the joy of knowing that he was able to bring us into eternal life, it gave Jesus joy to know the outcome of his sacrifice for us and all of us, would be  eternal life for any who will but freely receive it.

Jesus laid down his life joyfully for out eternal best good.This is the same selfless love that husbands and wives are called to have for each other.

Paul instructs us thru his Epistle to Roman Christians to "honor one another" above our selves.This is wise advice for all who enter into the most intimate of relationships that of marriage.

 All For the Other

In the culture of the day we often hear that marriage is a "50-50" proposition, yet this type of commitment means ,that each is only vested half way in to the marriage union. If this is  the degree that we enter the relationship we will find that it may not enure long when the stresses of life test it's mettle. 

We need to be fully vested toward and for one another, all for the other and with a focus on Jesus our marriages can endure and cope with life's challenges.

Two Are Better Than One

This relationship of marriage was ordained by God is best lived out with the divine blessing of God.This is the great God who reveals his love to and for us. This union will be given cohesion thru the abiding presences of God which creates a bound of love and unity and will draw husband and wife together as they grow in their own respective relationship with Jesus.

The Great God in his divine wisdom declared that "it is not good that the man should be alone" . This need and blessing of another is expanded in the poetic writing of  Ecclesiastes written by or compiled by Salomon.

"Two are better than one,

because they have a good return for their labor:

If either of them falls down,

one can help the other up.

But pity anyone who falls

and has no one to help them up.

Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.

But how can one keep warm alone?

Though one may be overpowered,

two can defend themselves.

A cord of three strands is not quickly broken." Eccl:4:9-12

These verses from  Ecclesiastes, show us, that what God has given us in marriage, out of his love and grace  for us, is not just to be "partnered" with another but a holy union which will aid each in facing the difficulties of this life, and with Jesus as the true sources of unity each can act as one in confronting what ever is encountered in life.

When Jesus is that "cord" which binds us together then,  the marriage union can face what ever arises  in life.

This is the sacred union that God has given  and ordained for humanity, a union which in it's best fullest expression brings each into and expresses a deep growing relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ and one another..Amen

Rev. Todd Crouch, Pastor 

The Fountain of Life Church a Congregation of Grace Communion
2101 Old National Pike.

Washington, Pennsylvania.   www.gcfountainoflife.org

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