Marriage: Valuable, or a Means to an End?

 "Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man." Genesis 2:22

"Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." Genesis 2:24

Marriage is the first human institution that God set in place when he created man upon the Earth. It is by far the most important human institution to this present day. It is no wonder that it was marriage that was attacked by the feminists and the sexual revolution. But truth is greater than human rebellion and marriage endures in spite of the attacks.

In some of our churches marriage is looked at as a side issue. Important as far as it goes. But little emphasis is placed on marriage; to promote it, or to support it. In some of our churches anyway. We view marriage as legal sex. We view marriage as a means to an end to get sent out. We know how to marry people. We, by our actions, seem to not value the institution of marriage.

In Prescott, pastor Mitchell used weddings as an opportunity to preach a new sermon on marriage every time! He thought wedding and marriage were valuable in their own right. Some pastors only see weddings as an evangelistic opportunity and they are only excited since there will be unsaved visitors there. They use weddings to preach the Gospel. Very few people get saved at a wedding. Visitors are thinking about marriage even if the preacher isn't.

The first wedding set the stage for all humanity. Only death is strong enough to break the holy bonds of matrimony. Divorce and abandonment damage marriage. But death alone ends it. Since marriage is so important and so profound and so critical to any church or society, ought not our churches be a place to see marriage and to learn about marriage and to get married? I think we owe this to the world.

Focusing like a laser beam on evangelism blinds us to some very important issues.

"And the Lord God said, it is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him." Genesis 2:18

God said that Adam did not need to witness, he needed to get married!