Matthew 19 narrates a situation that occurred at a time when large crowds are following Jesus, He was healing people and gaining a lot of followers. The religious leaders saw Jesus’ popularity as a threat, so they tried to test Him: “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?”
They are asking if they were ever allowed to get divorced. The religious leaders were trying to trap Jesus in a debate about an important topic in Jewish culture during the first century.
Then Jesus responds: “And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So, they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no person is to separate.”
He quotes the Old Testament. Jesus points to the creation narrative to remind them who created marriage. Jesus is teaching them instead of trying to find the “out” clause, be reminded of the purpose of marriage.
Marriage is part of creation, not a cultural creation. This is why anything outside of a covenant marriage between a man and a woman is anything but marriage.
Marriage is the bedrock of the family, and family is the basic building blocks of a healthy society.
Satan desires to kill, steal and destroy Adam and Eve, and he does so by going after their marriage. The method of the enemy is to get you to believe lies about the Lord’s goodness and design.
Marriage is a picture of the gospel, and the gospel is a picture of marriage. It is an earthly picture of that greater marriage of Christ and His Church.
Three Pieces of a Kingdom Vision of Marriage
- A spouse should be your closest friend
Gen 2:18 says, “Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”
Marriage is about companionship. Your spouse is someone you do life with, a close companion. Someone equal but different. A different gender, complementary.
A Christian couple has the mission to grow the kingdom. You need a mission together, for the glory of God and the good of other people.
- A spouse is a covenant partner
The kingdom of this world says that your marriage is a contract. That is a lie, it is a covenant. A contract says “if” you do these certain things I am in. A covenant says no matter what, I am in.
The only way to do this is to have a gospel saturated marriage and life. This will allow you to forgive when hurt and be humble to seek unity and have a soft heart to learn when God wants to teach me.
This principle allows you to treat your spouse as God treats you. As we forgive and love our sinful spouse, we begin to see in an infinitely smaller way, what it took for a holy God to forgive and save us.
- A spouse is a personal sanctifier
Our spouse is the person God brought to help us grow in godliness.
Pastor Chris Williams
To learn more about Pastor Chris and his teaching, visit us on the web at fcfamily.org and make sure you subscribe to receive these weekly encouragements in your inbox.
