What Is Marriage?

Marriage is an institution ordained of God, for the honor and happiness of mankind, in which one man and one woman enter into a bodily and spiritual union, pledging each to the other mutual love, honor, fidelity, sympathy, forbearance, and companionship such as would assure unbroken continuance of their wedlock as long as both shall live.  Marriage had its design in the mind of God and was not something that man conceived for his own convenience.

God’s original purpose for marriage was companionship.  God saw from the beginning that it was not good for Adam (man) to be alone (Genesis 2:18).  A suitable companion could not be found for Adam among the lower creation.  Therefore, God removed a rib from Adam and created woman. Genesis 2:21 says, “The Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place.  Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man he made into a woman, and he brought her to man.”  Woman was the last of God’s creation and the only thing created for a special purpose.  The woman was created by God to be a suitable companion for man.  The woman (Eve) was a companion suited to man’s needs and implied that he would serve the same purpose for her needs.  God did not create another man (an equal), but he made a woman as a complement to the man.  God’s purpose in creating man and woman was to have a relationship for mutual understanding, sympathy, and common purpose.  Husbands and wives are to be an aid, help and support to each other.  Companionship involves someone with whom we are able to communicate openly, to share life’s joys unselfishly and its problems unitedly.  There should be a companionship between a husband and wife that cannot be found in any other relationship or with any other being.

Scriptural marriage is the bending together of two eligible persons of opposite sex to make one flesh in the sight of God and man.  God’s original marriage statement, “A man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh” (Genesis 2:24).  One man and one woman leave father and mother and cleave to a new union.  The two lives become one in their desires, goals, purposes, name, in body and soul.  They are to live for each other and God.  The word cleave means glued to or cemented together.  The oneness we have in the marriage relationship originated as a concept of God.  When we become one as God intended, we experience fulfillment, peace, genuine love and concern for one another.

Marriage was a part of God’s eternal plan for mankind and is the happiest and best way for man to live.  We must accept and live by God’s plan for happy and successful marriages.