The Purpose Of Marriage

Man and woman were created by God for a purpose, to be husband and wife, to complement one another.  Marriage is the most intimate and permanent of all earthly relationships.  Marriage also offers the most complete happiness.  In this article I want to discuss God’s purpose for the marriage relationship.

GOD’S ORIGINAL PURPOSE FOR MARRIAGE – COMPANIONSHIP

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.  God saw from the beginning that it that it was not good for man to be alone.

God created the woman as a complement to man (Genesis 2:18-24).  God gave a suitable mate for mutual understanding, sympathy, common purpose, and accomplishment.  Husbands and wives are to be an aid, help, and support to each other.  A husband is not just a father and provider, and a wife is not just a mistress of her husband’s house and a mother of his children, they are partners in all of life’s joys and sorrows as they journey through this life together.

Companionship involves someone with whom we are able to communicate openly, to share life’s joys unselfishly and its problems united.  There should be a companionship between husband and wife that cannot be found in any other relationship or with any other being.  Incompatibility is the major cause of divorce today!  When we become one as God intended, we experience fulfillment, peace, genuine love and concern for one another.

GOD DESIGNED MARRIAGE FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE HUMAN RACE

God intended that the union of man and woman produce children.  One of the great joys that any couple can experience is the birth of children.  Children should be brought into this world only within the confines of marriage, where their arrival is hailed as source of great joy, raising motherhood to a place of joy and fulfillment and bringing out the best in a man to protect and provide for his own.  God intended that the home be a place of happiness, contentment, and security for the entire family.

GOD INTENDED MARRIAGE TO AVOID SEXUAL IMMORALITY

Marriage is given by God to satisfy in a lawful means the sexual appetites of mankind.

“Because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband” (1 Corinthians 7:2-3 NKJV).  To satisfy the sexual desire outside of marriage is dishonorable in the sight of God.  When a person commits sexual immorality he adulterates, contaminates, and makes impure an institution that God says is pure, right, good, and honorable.  Let us all strive to live by God’s pattern for a happy marriage relationship.