"Marriage may look different today, but it remains a sacred aspiration woven into the lives of most adults, Christian or not. As cultural definitions shift, the Church’s opportunity is not simply to defend marriage, but to disciple people toward healthy, enduring relationships that reflect God’s covenant love."
- Barna Article: Marriage & Divorce Trends
Genesis 1:26-28 - 26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness. They will rule… 27 So God created man in His own image; He created him in the image of God; He created them male and female. 28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it.
Genesis 2:15 - The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it.
Man's Established role: TO SERVE & GUARD.
Genesis 2:18-25 - 18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper as his complement.” 19 So the Lord God formed out of the ground every wild animal…
20 but for the man no helper was found as his complement. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to come over the man, and he slept. God took one of his ribs and closed the flesh at that place. 22 Then the Lord God made the rib He had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 And the man said: This one, at last, is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh; this one will be called “woman,” for she was taken from man. 24 This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh. 25 Both the man and his wife were naked, yet felt no shame.
Woman's Established Role: To Help & Complement
MANY COUPLES WHO FIGHT FOR "EQUALITY"-- FOLLOWING CULTURES LEAD -- OFTEN DISTORT GOD'S ESTABLISHED ROLES AND END UP CREATING A MARRIAGE ENVIRONMENT THAT PROMOTES INEQUALITY.
MARITAL ROLES REINSTATED THROUGH CHRIST LOVE FOR THE CHURCH:
Ephesians 5:22-33 - 22 Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, 23 for the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of the body. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so wives are to submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word. 27 He did this to present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless. 28 In the same way, husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hates his own flesh but provides and cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, 30 since we are members of His body. 31 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. 32 This mystery is profound, but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 To sum up, each one of you is to love his wife as himself, and the wife is to respect her husband.
1 Corinthians 11:3, 7-9, 11-12 - 3 I want you to know that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of the woman, and God is the head of Christ.
7 A man, is God’s image and glory, but woman is man’s glory. 8 For man did not come from woman, but woman came from man. 9 And man was not created for woman, but woman for man.
11 In the Lord, however, woman is not independent of man, and man is not independent of woman. 12 For just as woman came from man, so man comes through woman, and all things come from God.
"Yet man being made last of the creatures, as the best and most excellent of all, Eve’s being made after Adam, and out of him, puts an honor upon that sex, as the glory of the man. If man is the head, she is the crown, a crown to her husband, the crown of the visible creation. The man was dust refined, but the woman was dust double-refined, one remove further from the earth."
- Matthew Henry
"Priority does not imply inferiority; for Paul made it clear in 1 Corinthians 11:11-12 that there is partnership as well as headship in God's creation. The man and the woman are spiritually one in the Lord and one cannot do without the other. "
- Warren Wiersbe
THE ONLY WAY TO REDEEM THE EFFECTS OF SIN ON RELATIONSHIPS IS THROUGH RECOGNITION & REPENTANCE OF OUR SIN, AND SURRENDERING OURSELVES TO JESUS AND OUR MARRIAGE TO GOD.
HEALING AND REDEMPTION CAN ONLY BE FOUND WHEN WE STOP WALKING IN THE WAKE OF SIN.
7 RELATIONSHIP CHARACTERISTICS OF JESUS EVERY MARRIAGE MUST MODEL.
- UNCONDITIONAL LOVE
- SELFLESS CARE
- ACTIVE PROTECTION
- PURPOSEFUL PROVISION
- SERVANT LEADERSHIP
- INTENTIONAL INTIMACY
- FAITHFUL DEVOTION
THE MARRIAGE CREED:
I will love my spouse unconditionally and combat the lustful desires that entice my eyes, my flesh and my pride.
I will care for my spouse selflessly by being attentive and compassionate toward their needs to combat my selfishness.
I will protect my spouse actively seeking to guard their heart and mind from attacks. I will combat passivity to pursue them so they feel seen, loved, and safe in my company.
I will provide for my spouse physically, emotionally, and spiritually by seeing and meeting their needs. Constant provision will combat purposelessness, both in work and our marriage.
I will lead my spouse humbly serving them. My leadership will not be domineering or controlling but sacrificial and nurturing. Servant leadership will combat any pride, ego or selfish motives.
I will be intimate with my spouse regardless of circumstances. I will remember that we have become one flesh. I will combat isolation and division by intentionally drawing closer to my spouse through physical connection, emotional conversation, and spiritual devotion.
I will be faithful to my spouse by remaining faithful to Christ. My pursuit of Him will strengthen my devotion to them. I understand that only my devotion to Christ can combat the lies, deception and mistrust the enemy uses to destroy my marriage.
