Marriage doesn’t solve your problems. Marriage does not create your problems. Marriage reveals problems. It simply magnifies what was already a problem when you were living as a single adult.
There are a lot of things marriage can’t do, but it does have a God-designed function. So why did God design marriage?
God created marriage for the connection of men and women.
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 11:11, “In God’s plan men and women need each other” (TLB).
Whether or not you get married, if you’re a woman, you need men in your life. If you’re a man, you need women in your life. Why? Because nobody holds the full image of God. Women get part of it, men get part of it, and we need each other. God wired it this way. God thought up gender. God thought up sex. And God thought up marriage. What a God!
Did you ever wonder why God made man and then woman a little bit later? Why didn’t he make them both at the same time?
I think he did it for Adam’s benefit. I think he wanted Adam to realize how much he needed women in his life.
Genesis 2:18 says, “It isn’t good for man to be alone; I will make a companion for him.”
You need companions in all different areas of your life. But there is nothing like the companionship of a marriage. It is in a relational class all by itself.
Here’s what Jesus had to say about it: “‘God made them male and female’ from the beginning of creation. This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one. Since they are no longer two but one, let no one split apart what God has joined together” (Mark 10:6-9 NLT, second edition).
That passage makes three major points about marriage:
Marriage is God’s plan. It’s not a tradition we can just throw out.
Marriage is between a man and a woman. Their body parts fit together for a purpose — the creation of everybody else.
Marriage is to be permanent. It’s meant to be for life.
Do you realize how radical those three statements are? It seems like most people don’t believe those statements any more. But it’s still the truth! It’s still the way God designed marriage. And just because we live in the real, not necessarily the ideal, doesn’t mean we get to say the ideal doesn’t exist.
Talk It Over
Why is it important for a single person to understand the purpose of marriage?
How have Christians tried to distort the three points about marriage from Mark 10:6-9?
Why do you think marriage reveals problems about ourselves? What are we meant to do about those flaws within a marriage relationship?
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