When God officiates the
very first wedding in human history – the wedding of Adam and Eve in the beautiful
Garden of Eden - He clearly gives the purpose for marriage. In Genesis 2:24-25, He says, “For
this cause…” Stop! For what cause is He talking about? If you go back earlier in the chapter we see
the fact that God made Adam with a need for companionship which can only be
truly fulfilled through a wife. Now keep
reading. “For this cause, a man shall leave
his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife and they shall become one
flesh.” Verse 25 then adds, “And
the man and his wife were both naked and not ashamed.”
Over the next few blog
posts I want to show you from theses verses four purposes for marriage. Before I give you those four purposes, I want
you to understand that the purposes we're going to see in these verses have
never changed. Our culture has tried to change
them. Even churches have attempted to change
them. The truth is that God's purpose
for marriage stated at that very first wedding has never changed. How do I know that?
I know this because a
couple thousand years after the first wedding, when Jesus is walking on the
earth, He repeats this very purpose. In
Matthew 19, someone tried to trap Jesus with a question concerning divorce and
Jesus said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them
male and female?” He then quotes
right from Genesis 2:24, “For this reason a man shall leave his father
and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.” The purpose of God had not changed.
In fact, not only did
Jesus repeat it, but after the death and resurrection of Jesus and His ascension
back in to heaven, the Apostle Paul also repeated the same purpose. In Ephesians 5:31 Paul quotes word perfect
from Genesis 2:24 – “For this reason, a man shall leave his
father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.”
What does all this tell
me? It tells me that God's purpose for
marriage has never changed. The same
purpose that God speaks in Genesis 2:24 is the same purpose that God has for
marriage yet today. Based on this, let's
look at four purposes for marriage from those ancient but extremely applicable
verses.
Purpose number one we're
going to call severance. “For this cause,” the Bible says, “a man
shall leave his father and mother.”
What is God saying? To put it in
the lingo of the old, Wild West, it means that the moment you say, "I do," there's a new sheriff in
town. Think about it this way - growing up
who was the most important human relationship in your life? More than likely it was your parents. Understand that according to the Bible the
moment you said, "I do," a
new sheriff came to town. Because you
see, folks, the moment you say "I
do" there's a new priority in your life. From that moment on, the most important human
relationship in your life must be your spouse – “A man shall leave his father and
mother.” Do we still honor our
parents? Absolutely. Do we still love our parents? Absolutely.
But there's a new sheriff in town.
Why is this
important? I've seen a lot of marriages
go through troubles because they couldn't figure out this purpose. Even if you're a daddy's girl, after you
marry the most important human relationship in your life must be your
husband. Even if you're a mama's boy,
after you marry the most important human relationship in your life must be your
wife. Folks, listen, if you ever have to
choose between making your spouse happy or making your parents happy, choose your
spouse.
As parents, we need to
release our children to obey God. We
should never make our adult married children choose between us or their spouses. We should never resort to guilt and
manipulation in order to try to get them to sway our way as parents. We need to release our adult children to obey
God and to make their spouse the most important human relationship in their
life.
1 comment:
Thank you pastor scott!!
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