What Is Marriage All About? | Messy Church, Part 9

What Is Marriage All About? | Messy Church, Part 9

You like

You love

You get engaged

You marry

You die

“The state of being united as spouses in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law.” – Webster’s Dictionary

Paul has a different view on marriage in 1 Corinthians 7

1. Marriage is good and so is sex (within marriage)

1 Corinthians 7:1-4

Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.

2. Marriage is important but it is not everything

1 Corinthians 7:6-9

Now as a concession, not a command, I say this. 7 I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another. 8 To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single, as I am. 9 But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

Marriage & Singleness:

Good

Gifts

Marriage is a sign of the promise of Christ.

Singleness is a sign of the sufficiency of Christ.

People have a tendency to idealize and idolize marriage.

When you idealize marriage, you can just as easily make an idol out of marriage.

3. Marriage was designed to be permanent

1 Corinthians 7:10-14

To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband 11 (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife. 12 To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. 13 If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. 14 For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.

Matthew 19:4–8

He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and holdfast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh.What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” 7 They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” 8 He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.

Divorce is not a command, it is a concession.

1. Adultery (Matt. 19:9)

2. Abandonment (1 Cor. 7:15-16)

1 Corinthians 7:15-16

But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace. 16 For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?

Marriage is meant for life

Divorce should not be an option

There are 2 exceptions

What does the Bible say about remarriage?

1 Cor. 7:11, 1 Cor. 7:15, Matt. 5:32, Matt. 19:9

The story of Hosea and Gomer::