It is extremely important that we, who are Christians, get the Biblical concept of God designed marriage right.

John Whitten

11h ·

It is extremely important that we, who are Christians, get the Biblical concept of God designed marriage right. In the beginning with creation, the only institution existing was the first family and it was in this first family that sin entered into the world. Sin, that necessitated God Himself dying on the cross, to rectify with the shedding of His own blood. If we deviate from God’s design, we have the wrong message for the world, let’s get it right. The fault that led to the first sin was not the woman’s fault, or the man’s fault, but the fault of both of them. It was the same fault then, that leads to sin today. There was one man, then there was also a woman, together they walked with God.

Then the woman was deceived by a serpent into believing that she could be the same as her husband. Her husband was the god of the terrestrial world, now she also wanted to be equal to him. The man was not deceived by a serpent. He had personally received the command regarding the tree of knowledge of good and evil, directly from God, and yet, when his wife enticed him to eat the same fruit from that tree that she took and ate, he chose to appropriate the authority that belongs to God only, and negated God’s command. He chose to listen to his wife’s voice rather than the voice of God, so that he could be in the place of God to her, earning her praise.

I believe that if Adam had responded by taking the fruit and placing it at the base of the tree, then taking Eve by the hand, away from the scene while admonishing her disobedience, there would have been no sin. But, there was and is. Eve failed Adam and God by not being content to be Adam’s wife/helper. She sinned against Adam. Adam failed Eve and God by not being willing to incur the displeasure or anger of his wife rather than doing the harder thing of standing by God’s Word at any cost. Adam didn’t want to be thought of as the bad guy with his wife and in doing so, he brought sin and death into and on the whole world. “But godliness with contentment is great gain.” 1 Corinthians 6:6

I SUSPECT that God created this world by His design, particularly the roles of husbands and wives, to demonstrate His righteousness and holiness in His dealings with Lucifer’s rebellion. Before there was a book written, before there was a prophet or preacher, everything that could be known by mankind about God and His relationship with His creation was designed to be demonstrated in the marital relationship. An act, if you will, a play of sorts where the husband acts as God, and the wife acts as God’s people (all people, not just Israel or Christians), their children, as the lost souls of the world. In their interactions they display love, devotion, truth, justice, righteousness, grace, and mercy.

Marriage was never intended to be a conflict between two people, who are not content in the role God created for them, but rather a loving, peaceful demonstration of God’s glorious grace. Marriage is designed to be the closest thing to Heaven on Earth that saved people can experience. The parallels are extensive. Being content to be the man that God created, not that which our culture demands is vital. Being content to be the woman that God created and not that which our culture is pushing is equally vital.

I don’t desire to change the world with these thoughts. I do hope to have some measure of influence on those people who name the name of Christian in a positive way. We are the light of the world, but our light is dim and flickering because we are not supporting the message of God by our example in marriage. Modern Christian marriages, for the most part, have women who act like Eve did and men who act like Adam did. Neither of them are content to be who God created them to be. I will squarely lay the blame at the feet of men. Most men today do not have the backbone to stand up to their wives and do what is right in the eyes of God. I have almost 50 years of pastoral experience under my belt and with that I say that most homes and most churches are run by women. They are not run by the women in rebellion, but by default, the men are failing to do their job and someone must do it.

Men, we must have a purpose from God, a woman can’t help a man who doesn’t know where he is going. Then we must have a willingness, a commitment to that purpose. Our purpose IS NOT TO PLEASE OUR WIVES, it is to please God and the wives are to help us do it. Marriage is not a partnership, it is not a committee, it is a godly patriarchy. It is a godly patriarchy in which both men and women have their first allegiance to God and operate in their assigned and designed roles. Don’t deviate, the Devil is in the deviation.