What Is Marriage?

Within the past few years we have seen marriage radically redefined in the earth. God’s design has been so totally twisted that, sadly, it is now considered hate speech to say that His is the only definition of marriage.

As God created life in the earth before He created the man and the woman, Genesis 1 tells us each thing He created had “seed in itself according to its kind.” And as He created, He observed that “it was good.” God’s creative design was not flawed.

Then God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness” and He created a man and a woman and joined them in marriage. He gave them the ability to reproduce and fill the earth. “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 and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’”

In Genesis 2, God gave Adam the privilege of naming all the animals, of defining them, but He did not give him the privilege of defining marriage. God sovereignly designed that union and people do not have the privilege of redefining it. In Ephesians 5, marriage is compared to the relationship between Christ and His Church. The design of God is very specific and reflects the deeper eternal relationship with His bride. God designed marriage to be a covenant relationship between a man and a woman that brings forth life (both natural and spiritual) and is only broken by death.

So what occurred spiritually that opened the door for the world to believe it could redefine marriage? Could it be that the Church redefined marriage long before the world did? Could it be that a covenant relationship that God designed to last a lifetime was redefined by the Church as a fragile, disposable relationship that could be broken by the behavior of one or the other spouses? Could it be that the Church believes the covenant commitment of our relationship with Jesus is totally different than that of a husband and wife?

The Church speaks for God in this earth. Because of our relationship with Jesus, we are the only legal voice of His authority. What we speak establishes things in the earth. And when the Church speaks something different about marriage than God speaks, then we change the atmosphere regarding marriage in the earth.

It is no small thing that the Church has strayed so far from the original plan of God for marriage. Jesus said, “…in the beginning it was not so.” God’s original plan has been greatly warped by the Church. Lately I have read many writings of people within the Church declaring why divorce is, at the very least, accepted by God and, at the worst, endorsed by God. I even read one the other day that explained why God didn’t really mean He hated divorce when He declared, “I hate divorce.” It took quite a bit of mental gymnastics for him to explain away God’s words. Anyone who has endured the pain of divorce, though, can easily understand why God hates it.

Years ago we read a letter to the editor of our local paper. It was written by a man defending his homosexual lifestyle. At one point in his letter he said he had been in a monogamous relationship for many years and he asked Christians how we could say his relationship was wrong when we couldn’t even stay married to each other for that long. It brought to light the Church’s hypocrisy regarding marriage.

God created man and woman in His image and the covenant relationship of marriage reflects the fullness of God. The redefining of marriage is about more than marriage. It is about the image of God in the earth. For years we have said that those who stand for their marriage covenant reflect the heart of God — forgiving in the face of unforgiveness, loving in the face of rejection, and faithfulness when faced with betrayal.

When the Church endorses divorce, the world is given the message of a God who loves conditionally and rejects those who do not perform according to His wishes. Relationship with Him becomes performance-based. How very much religion has fostered that image of God!

That distorted picture of God then opens the door for further distortion. If God is not faithful, how can you trust Him? How can you trust His word? How can you believe that He created marriage and designed it according to His will? Anything can be anything you want it to be if God’s will is not the bottom line.

We are now reaching the tipping point. A line is being drawn in the sand. Where will the Church stand regarding marriage? What will we be willing to suffer to see God’s original plan defended in the earth? One thing is for sure, we cannot stand on shifting sand. Until the Church is willing to endorse His original design for marriage and remain faithful to His plan, there can be no clear voice for marriage in the earth. Love, Marilyn

“For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.”  1 John 3:8