WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT MARRIAGE

Here is the short answer to the belief that there was no wedding ceremony between Adam and Eve. Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?”

“Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” (Matthew 19: 3-6)

While there are many who believe the traditional wedding vows are derived from the Bible, there are some who say there are no wedding vows to be found in the Scripture. Many Bible scholars use the law of first mention in studying Scripture. The law of first mention states that, “To understand a particular word or doctrine, we must find the first place in Scripture that word or doctrine is revealed and study that passage. The reasoning is that the Bible’s first mention of a concept is the simplest and clearest presentation; doctrines are then more fully developed on that foundation. So, to fully understand important and complex theological concepts, Bible students are advised to start with its first mention.” The first mention of a wedding is found in Genesis 2:18-25.

I found this sample wedding vow at marthastewart.com, and I added the bold text which is found in many wedding vows. The vows: "I, ___, take thee, ___, to be my wedded wife/husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, forsaking all others, till death do us part, according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I pledge thee my faith." What we find in the two Scripture verses above is a working blueprint for the traditional vows found in most wedding ceremonies that take place in American churches today.

In order for there to be a divorce, there had to be “a legal dissolution of a marriage by a court or other competent body. “(Definition of divorce – Oxford Dictionary) By connecting the Scripture in Genesis 2:18-25 with the question on divorce, there is every indication that God performed a wedding ceremony when He brought Eve to Adam. “Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” (Matt. 19:6) Marriage is a legal ceremony in which two become one. Just as an earthly father gives away the bride, God the Father brought her to Adam and gave her to him. God created Eve. She belonged to Him. He gave her away. God was not only the father of the bride, but He officiated the ceremony.

As Christians we have a different view of marriage than the secular world does. The world sees it as a marriage contract. A contract, by its very nature, implies distrust between the parties involved. If certain conditions aren’t met, then there can be a legal dissolution. The Bible views marriage between a male and a female as a covenant. “In a Biblical sense, the word covenant derives from the root word meaning ‘to cut. This means that in the culture of the Bible, covenant carried weight and was often cut, or sealed, in blood.” (firmisrael.org) A contract is an agreement between parties while a covenant is a pledge.

Speaking of covenants, there are five major covenants recorded in Scripture. They are: Noahic Covenant; Abrahamic Covenant; Davidic Covenant; New Covenant; and Mosaic Covenant. The first three covenants in this list were unconditional covenants made with Israel, meaning Israel was not obligated to do anything. The fourth covenant, also unconditional, was the New Covenant instituted by Christ with Israel and the Gentiles. I listed the Mosaic Covenant last because it was conditional. It was different in that God would bless Israel if they kept his law, if they disobeyed, he would punish them.

The importance that God placed upon marriage is clearly seen throughout the Old Testament. In Jeremiah 2:2ff and 3:1ff, the subject is marriage and divorce, in this case between God and Israel. In Ezekiel 16:8 God gave a solemn oath and connected the Old Covenant (Mosaic) with marriage. In Jeremiah 3:14 God states that he is married to Israel and in verse 20 he says: “But like a woman unfaithful to her husband, so you, Israel, have been unfaithful to me,” declares the Lord.” In Isaiah 54:5, God speaking through the prophet Isaiah says, “For your Maker is your husband—the Lord Almighty is his name—…”. Finally, the book of Hosea is about Israel’s unfaithfulness, primarily as an unfaithful wife. Her sins are described in sexual terms because sexual sins are the most common way infidelity is shown to the public.

The Mosaic Covenant is recorded in Exodus 19-24, and it was sealed by the blood of an animal sacrifice. “Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, ‘This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.’” The problem with the Mosaic covenant is that Israel could not keep her vows to the Lord. The history of Israel throughout the Old Testament is that of unfaithfulness to God and his commandments.

God, knowing that all of mankind, including the Gentiles, would never be able to keep the law perfectly, instituted the New Covenant and sealed it with the blood of Christ. He did this unconditionally, stating that, “It is not by works of righteousness that we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us…” (Titus 3:5).

The New Covenant is the same as the Old Covenant in the sense that just as God viewed Israel as his bride, the Church is the bride of Christ. “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” (Ephesians 5:25) In 2 Corinthians 11:2 Paul says this to the Corinthian church: “I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.”

“Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting:

‘Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.’

(Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.)” (Revelation 19:6-8)

When God the Father tells his Son to go and get his bride (the Church), also known as the rapture of the Saints, he is coming back for a spotless bride. Jesus, who through eternity past, never experienced pain, suffering, loneliness, rejection, loss of loved ones through death, and death itself, experienced it all when he took our place and bore our judgement so that we might become his bride. Are we to think that he will be coming back for just anybody who does what they please? Or is he coming back for those who love him with all their hearts and have made him Lord of their lives?

Jesus said if we love him, we will keep his commandments. If we have sex outside the union of marriage it is called fornication. If we have sex with another person who is not our husband/wife it is called adultery. “But sexual immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be mentioned among you, as is proper among saints; and there must be no filthiness or foolish talk, or vulgar joking, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. For this you know with certainty, that no sexually immoral or impure or greedy person, which amounts to an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

See that no one deceives you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.” (Ephesians 5:3-6)

In light of what the Word of God says, how important is the marriage covenant to God? The final word on this subject is found in Revelation 21:6-8: He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

Almost all marriages around the world have a legal document signifying that a couple are married. The Bible is God’s love letter to us as well as his marriage covenant with us. He commits himself to us if we commit ourselves to him. The great news is that we aren’t his bride “until death do us part.” We will be his bride for eternity. That’s the definition of true love.