Why did God create marriage, and why get married? Would you and your spouse answer these questions the same way? These are important questions to discuss in your marriage relationship, and it’s critical that you and your spouse be headed in the same direction.
The answer to why God created marriage and why get married provide purpose in your marital relationship. You cannot experience oneness in marriage if you are not unified in your purpose for being together.
Love, companionship, sex, shared responsibilities, and many other reasons top the list of why people get married. The bible wouldn’t discredit any of those as aspects of what we get to experience in marriage, but they are certainly not the driving force to why God created marriage and why we get married.
God’s Original Intent
God clearly states three purposes for why he created the marriage relationship. We find these purposes declared in Genesis one. It is important to note that what we read in Genesis chapters one and two are God’s original intent for creation. Sin had not entered the world. Wow, what a thought to consider! Genesis one and two gives us a snapshot of what God’s ultimate desire for our relationship with Him and with each other should be. And what it could have been prior to man’s disobedience in Genesis three.
Genesis three was no surprise to God. Reconciliation, redemption, and restoration would quickly become part of God’s plan, but not His original intent.
We read in Genesis 1:26 that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are having a conversation. The passage reads, “God said…” Our trinitarian God existing as one God in three persons was saying that “they” should create man in “their” image. This conversation is key to understanding God’s design and purpose for marriage. God wanted mankind to be the only aspect of creation that would reflect the imago die (likeness of God). He created man with unique abilities that no other part of God’s creation would have. God who has no gender possesses both male and female characteristics. He chose to reveal those in man and woman, the crown jewel of His creation.
Then in Genesis 1:27 we read that, “God created…” God created male and female. He did so in the image of Himself as stated would be done in the previous verse. Clearly, God created mankind beginning with one male and one female with one of the three purposes that would be to REFLECT the image of God. Husband and wife should interact in a way that causes others to see a mirror image of the oneness of the Godhead.
The Importance of the Purpose of Marriage
The CFL team really highlights this in our premarital counseling. We want it to be clear with young couples how important God’s purpose is in their marriage. They can rally around the same purpose of reflecting His image together. An important purpose that can only be fulfilled if a husband and wife are aware of that purpose and pursuing it together.
Would you consider your marriage to be the kind of marriage that mirrors the oneness of the Godhead? What aspects of your marriage need to change so that others can see the unity of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?
God created marriage so that it would continually point us back to our relationship with Him. A thriving marriage is an amazing portrait of the relationship we get to have with God. After writing about this very thing, Paul in his letter to the church in Ephesus says, “This is a profound mystery.” This mystery is profound because we have been created in the image of God, and we get to experience love, forgiveness, grace, mercy, and so much more at deep levels with God and with each other. Our relationship with Him is mysterious and profound, and our marriage can be a glimpse of God to others.
In the next blog we’ll consider God’s second purpose for marriage – be fruitful and multiply.
