The Purpose of Marriage

Knowing the purpose something exists for, helps maintain its value. The opposite is equally true. The moment you lose the purpose of something is the moment it loses its value. Marriage is no different. Tradition can be a dangerous thing and one of its dangers is it makes it easy to lose sight of the importance of things. Marriage is by and large part of our tradition such that it expected that when you reach a certain age you must get married. Hence, people get married for the sake of it. Many, however, have no plan or purpose for their marriage. In fact, it is not an exaggeration to say most couples only plan for their wedding and not their marriage. So I thought it might be helpful to think through what the scriptures say is the purpose of marriage. 

For the purpose of companionship- Genesis 2:23-25

Then the man said, “This, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman because she was taken out of Man.”Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. 

To show the relationship between Christ and the church- Ephesians 5:23-25

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendour, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. 

To teach and show loving authority- Ephesians 5:25, 32

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendour, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish… This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. 

To teach and live out the truth-  Psalm 78:5-8 & Deuteronomy 6:4-9

He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments; and that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God.

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. 

We are all products of our culture. The difference lies in the extent to which we are influenced by it. Sadly, our view of marriage is often influenced by the popular notions of the culture such that we get its purpose completely twisted. Dear Christian, train yourself to view marriage through the lens of scripture.