WHAT GOD SAYS ABOUT MARRIAGE

SERIES: LIVING BY FAITH.

TEXT: HEBREWS 13:1-4.

 

God says marriage is not a joke. There is a divorce epidemic in Kenya, even Christian marriages are not spared divorce. Hebrews 13:4, “Marriage is to be held in honor among all….”

“Honor your marriage and its vows”-TLB. Biblical marriage is to be viewed as extremely expensive. Biblical marriage was divinely designed to be a union of one man and one woman for a life time-Gen. 2:24. “But because of immorality, each man is to have his own wife and woman is to have her own husband”-1^st Cor. 7:2.

God is not okay with gay marriages (Gen. 19:1-8; 1^st Cor. 6:9-10; Judges 19:16-30; Lev. 18:22; Rom. 1:25-28; 1^st Tim. 1:10; 2^nd Peter 2:6-7; Jude 7).

To honor is to price, to hold as very precious, as sacred, don’t treat your marriage as cheap marriage is to be honored by all-husband and wife.

Treat your spouse as precious, irreplaceable jewel that they are. Let us learn:-

YOUR MARRIAGE IS NOT A JOKE.

• The first step we can take to honor our marriages is to see your marriage as precious.
• The writer to the Hebrews tells us how we are supposed to honor our marriages.
• “The marriage bed is to be undefiled for fornicators and adulterers God will judge-Heb. 13:4.
• The second step you can take to honor your marriage is to protect the purity of your marriage.
• The marriage bed is a euphemism for sex not between a man and a woman, but between a husband and a wife.
• When adultery happens the purity of the marriage is compromised.
• There are two reasons that divorce was permissible in the New Testament.

1. Abandonment-1^st 7:12-15.

“Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave, the brother or the sister is under no bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace.”

• Abandonment by an unbelieving spouse was ground for divorce.

2. Adultery-Matt. 5:32; 19:9.

• God will come down on those who mess up sexually.
• The world and the government may not judge sex outside of marriage as a bad thing, but God does.
• Adultery causes such damage and dishonor to the purity of marriage, that sometimes the damage cannot be undone.
• Do everything you can to prevent divorce because divorce is terrible-Malachi 2:13-16.
• See your marriage as precious and protect the purity of your marriage.

MARRIAGE IS HARD WORK.

• Paul was writing from Ephesus to the Corinthian church.
• Corinth was a town that was dwarfed by a mountain called the Acropolis.
• On top of that mountain was the temple of Aphrodite. Sex was a religion. Temple prostitutes, male and female were common place.
• In the Roman world women were seen as slaves, men had more than one wife.
• Sex in marriage was secondary because men went up to the temple where the really good looking girls were kept-1^st 7:7-8.

The first aspect that must be developed in order to build towards having a godly marriage is relational-1^st Cor. 7:1-5.

• The husbands duties are given in the Bible:-

1. Sexual faithfulness-1^st 7:3.
2. Make her happy-Deut. 24:5.
3. Godly leader-Eph. 5:23.
4. Live with your wife-Gen. 2:23-24.
5. Love her-Eph. 5:28.
6. Show her honor-1^st Peter 3:7.

• The wife’s duties:

1. Sexual faithfulness-1^st 7:3.
2. Be a helper-Gen. 2:20.
3. Be a glorious wife-1^st 11:7. The husband is the head, the wife is the crown on his head.
4. Live with your husband-Gen. 2:20-25.
5. Be easy to love-Prov. 21:9.
6. Respond to him-Eph. 5:22.
7. Sexual response-1^st 7:4, 5.

• Love and sex belong exclusively in the Biblical marriage, between a husband and his wife.
• Marriage is hard work.

MARRIAGES THAT STAND THE TEST OF TIME ARE A PRODUCT OF LOYALTY-Ruth 1:16-17.

• Marriage is not a joke, marriage is hard work, marriage is loyalty.
• Ruth made a lifelong commitment of loyalty.

1. The first person we must commit to in our marriage is God.

• Ruth 1:16, “Your people shall be my people and your God my God.”
• Ruth left everything, everyone else she had ever cherished to be with the one she loved.
• God wants Christians to marry christians-2^nd 6:14.
• If you are already married to a non-christian, do not leave him or her-1^st 7:13-16.

2. The second person we must commit to in our marriage is our spouse.

• “Where you lodge I will lodge, where you die I will die, where you are buried I will be buried.”
• For Ruth and Boaz it was sickness/health, joy/sorrow/ rich/poor faithfulness.

CONCLUSION

• Marriage is a labor of love.
• Marriage is God’s plan for human beings to live as husband and wife.
• Marriage makes men better men.
• Marriage makes women better women.
• The dominant need for men is to be respected.
• The dominant need for women is security.
• Let marriage be held in honor by all.