2018/12/01

Marriage: The Basics, Part 1



Introduction

A House Beautiful magazine article offered advice to the wives whose husbands were returning from World War II: “You, to whom the veteran is returning, are entrusted with the biggest morale job in history. Your part in the remaking of this man is to fit his home to him, understanding why he would want it this way, forgetting your own preferences. After all, it is the boss who has come home.” This quaint description of married life from the 1940’s reminds us of one of the greatest truths about the Bible—the Bible never goes out-of-date. It speaks powerfully and purposefully to every culture, to every century, to every marriage. This staying power is one of the reasons why I believe the Bible contains the words of the Living God. What other source can do this?

This post is the beginning of a series I will do on marriage. Though the coming posts will venture into other territory, I will stay on this theme of marriage because marriage plays such a vital role in what God wants to accomplish in people’s lives.

God didn’t waste any time revealing the nature of Christian marriage. In the first three chapters of Genesis, God revealed many of the basic truths that I will return to again and again throughout this series. Marriage is God’s idea. And if “God invented marriage, then those who enter it should make every effort to understand and submit to his purposes for it.” (Tim Keller)

If there is no Creator then it makes sense to fiddle with the definition of marriage. But if marriage and its structure has been given to us by God, then we tread on rough ground if we try to remake it.

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