No Ceremony Required

• 1 Corinthians 6:16 What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.

Reader, the amazing reality of marriage is that no where in the bible is it achieved through a ceremony. This above verse should make your hair stand on end, the first time I read this it had that affect on me. Is Christ really saying here that if you have sexual relations with a prostitute, you are now one flesh with her? Absolutely he is saying that!

• Genesis 2:24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

There are simply two requirements for a couple to be “biblically married”

1. They both leave the cleave of their parents
2. They join together as 1 flesh

That’s it, and if anyone tries to tell you differently ask them for a verse. Sure, there are legal requirements to have your marriage recognized by the state, but nowhere can I find this having any implication on how God sees things. This reality should adjust how all of us act, it should adjust how we teach our children. There is no way for a human to “play with fire” and not have a joining of the flesh.

No Law / No Divorce

Christ came to free us from the law, his perfect timing was at work when he decided to enter the earth in human form. The interesting thing is how Christ changed divorce for us in the New Testament. Paradoxically you would expect less rules and restrictions if we are not bound to the Old Testament law, not so with marriage.

• Matthew 19:9 And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery

No longer could man decide to put away his wife because he didn’t not like the flavor of her baked potatoes, and praise God for that! As the world became modern, and knowledge and sin increased, could you imagine a Godless world acting within the boundaries of no reason divorce? God certainly knew when he was doing!

Relentless Submission

Proverbs 31 gives us a picture of a biblical wife. If you are a woman reading this passage, you have my sympathy! Sure, as a man I am to lead my wife like Christ lead the church, hard order that one reader! But the calling on a woman in proverbs is…. Let’s just say significant and almost unachievable in full. In the New Testament the apostles talk “A LOT” about a wife submitting to her husband. So much so that it is impossible to miss that it’s a significant concept that cannot be avoided for the Christian married couple.

• Ephesians 5:22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
• 1 Peter 3:1 Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives
• Colossians 3:18 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.
• 1 Timothy 2:12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.

Why does the New Testament talk about submission more than the Old Testament? It is my personal opinion that Christ knew that in a deteriorating world his flock would need tighter boundaries. It stands to reason that the more sin we have around us, the more leadership we need to keep us aligned to the truths of God.

The Mercy of Christ

Reader, my single most favorite passage of the bible is John 8. It is a beautiful picture of the Christ’s love, and it just happens to graze the topic of marriage.

In this passage we see a married woman caught in the act of adultery. How do we know she was married? Well, if she was single she would have been caught in the act of fornication not adultery, lets read the passage,

• John 8:3 And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst,
• John 8:4 They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.
• John 8:5 Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?
• John 8:6 This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.
• John 8:7 So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
• John 8:8 And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.
• John 8:9 And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
• John 8:10 When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?
• John 8:11 She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

Firstly, what did Jesus write on the ground??? Unfortunately, the bible does not say, but here id love to take a guess,

• Deuteronomy 22:22 If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, then they shall both of them die, both the man that lay with the woman, and the woman: so shalt thou put away evil from Israel.

Excuse me scribes and pharisees, where was the guy who was with this woman in adultery? Well clearly that was their plan, they were trying to trip up Jesus and it failed miserably. As we read on, we see Jesus and this woman standing in this space alone, could you imagine how she must have been feeling inside? Petrified I would guess. Jesus refused to condemn her, a woman who only minutes ago was caught in the act of Adultery and told her to go and sin no more. My belief is Jesus forgave her because he knew she had just learnt her lesson, my hope if her husband forgave her when she returned to him.

Conclusion

Marriage in the New Testament has the exact foundation of the Old. In different times and being free from the law, marriage laws were changed, and adjusted to suit the following 2000 odd years of coming human history. The fact that marriage has no ceremony should make all of us think differently. If you ask any married person what their worst fear is in life, their spouse committing adultery is normally high on the list. Christ’s demonstration that even though the laws on divorce in the New Testament became much stricter, his mercy and love show us a level of forgiveness and compassion that offers hope in even the most dire of situations.