My wife and I have now celebrated 26 years of marriage. In pondering the definition of our marriage, is it just a legally binding union/contract and a societally recognized partnership, or a God-ordained and designed union that He has instituted? I whole-heartedly understand it to be definition #2 since that is how the Lord has described it in His Word since the beginning.

My wife and I were designed male and female, and this is the starting foundation of any marriage. In Genesis 2 we read of the man’s placement in the Garden. He is initially placed there without a helpmate (wife) and the Lord asks him to name the animals. Is this an odd request? I do not believe so if He is establishing a simple pattern. In observing and naming all the animals, the man would have noticed that everything was mated to a pair, male and female. Yet there was no one like him in all the animal kingdom he had just observed. God then made woman from a portion of man’s side while he slept. The Lord designed a female which the male needed as his helpmate. So, the Lord designated male and female as the starting point. If there were other acceptable foundations for marriage, we should see it here at the beginning of history.

When the man sees woman for the first time, he acknowledges the God-designed union that takes place in marriage. “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken out of man.” The Lord made and placed them together. He did not leave it up to the man to find the woman; she was designed for his needs and he for her needs. They were placed together as one flesh, not two, by the Lord; this was not of their own volition, or the work of a mother and father. They set a precedent for all marriages to come in history.

The Lord is the one who ordains marriage between a man and woman for life.That’s it, there is nothing else when it comes to the definition of marriage. It is a spiritually important union for the establishment of the family. Both man and woman should acknowledge their Creator as binding them together and thus start a family where godly offspring will be raised. Then those godly offspring will also know the importance placed on marriage by the Lord, as taught by their father and mother’s example.

Theresa and I were married over 26 years ago. We exchanged rings, vows and a kiss, and then signed a marriage license, none of which actually made us married. Those are the outward (and legal) signs that we have to show for the union God designed for us when He placed us together as one for life. I love my wife because she is exactly who I needed for this life, which the Lord knew when He bound us together in marriage. That bond is stronger than any problems, trials, disappointments, failures or any other thing in life that may try to destroy what the Lord bound.  

Within the ministry of Creation Truth Foundation we will continue to boldly teach, preach and show this truth of the God-ordained union of the family. Blessings to you all!