WHAT TRUE MARRIAGE LOOKS LIKE

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Now for the matters you wrote about: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband. The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife. Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. I say this as a concession, not as a command.

To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband. But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife.

1 Corinthians 7:1-6, 10-11

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Look at the world today and we’ll see all kinds of variations on marriage. Liberalism has taken it far beyond what God intended and we know this because His Word, which is absolute and true, sets the standards for what true marriage looks like. Go back to the early chapters of the Bible’s first book, Genesis, and you will find this:

The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib He had taken out of the man, and He brought her to the man.

The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.”

That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. Genesis 2:18, 20b-24

One man. One woman. United together as one flesh and united means just that. The husband and wife are to be fully committed to one another.

That’s what God intended marriage to be. Period. No exceptions.

Anyone who is dedicated to the Lord and His ways knows this and will make sure that others know it too. This is why we find the Apostle Paul taking time to touch on the topic to the church in Corinth. He wanted the baby Christians to know God’s expectations in regard to their relationships. Look again at his words here:

Now for the matters you wrote about: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband. The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife. Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. I say this as a concession, not as a command.

To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband. But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife. 1 Corinthians 7: 1-6, 10-11

Sexual immorality was happening in the Christian church and a lot of it was due to extramarital affairs that were taking place. Paul sought to eliminate this by reminding the Corinthian believers that “each man should only have sexual relations with his own wife” and the wives were to be equally faithful to their husbands. This was their marital duty, one unto the other.

Note that within a marriage, there was to be a surrendering of bodies. A man was to submit his body to his wife and the wife was to submit likewise to her husband. This submission was an act of special loving devotion that would facilitate the sexual intimacy that was to be unique to the marital relationship. A husband was to fully give of himself to his wife and his wife was to do the same unto her husband. Neither is permitted to intentionally withhold sexual relations from the other because it was in those scenarios that Satan would enter in and sow the seeds of marital infidelity, preying on the weakness of lust that threatened to compromise one’s self control. The only time withholding sexual intimacy was permissible is if there was mutual consent within the marital relationship to pray within the framework of celibacy but this wasn’t to endure long. Once the spiritual devotion was over, sexual relations were to continue.

Again, this is what true marriage was supposed to look like. One man. One woman. Fully devoted and committed to one another sacrificially, loving one another with a special sexual intimacy reserved for this God-designed and endorsed union. A unification such as this would be strong with the Lord at its center and would serve as a barrier to separation or divorce which the Bible forbids except for the instance of infidelity (Matthew 19:9). If a wife chose to separate from her husband for reasons outside of unfaithfulness, she was not allowed to remarry but had the option to reconcile the marital relationship with her husband.

Today, we not only find marital arrangements that the Bible calls detestable but thousands and thousands of marriages ending in divorce. The fix is easy. It’s time to get back to basics and allow the Bible to dictate how marriages are formed and how a husband and wife function within the marital framework. For this is the only way we can hope to properly participate in the God-created blessing of marriage, by entering into matrimony, one man united to one woman, and then fully devoting ourselves one to the other as the Lord commands.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com