Memory Text: Hebrews 13:3 NIV “Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.”

Sunday, January 15 The Genesis Marriage
What points did Jesus make when discussing the Genesis marriage?
Matthew 19:3-5 Holman Christian Standard Bible “3 ¶ Some Pharisees approached Him to test Him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife on any grounds?” 4 “Haven’t you read,” He replied, “that He who created them in the beginning made them male and female, 5 and He also said: For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh?”
Genesis 1:26-28 Holman “26 ¶ Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; He created him in the image of God; He created them male and female. 28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.””
Genesis 2:24-25 Holman “24 This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh. 25 Both the man and his wife were naked, yet felt no shame.”
Genesis 2:24 NLT “This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.”

Monday, January 16 Crisis and Consolation
What changed as far as marriage was concerned with the Fall?
Genesis 3 Holman “1 ¶ Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. 3 But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’” 4 “No! You will not die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 ¶ Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid themselves from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
9 ¶ So the LORD God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”
11 ¶ Then He asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I had commanded you not to eat from?” 12 Then the man replied, “The woman You gave to be with me––she gave me /some fruit/ from the tree, and I ate.” 13 So the LORD God asked the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “It was the serpent. He deceived me, and I ate.”
14 ¶ Then the LORD God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, you are cursed more than any livestock and more than any wild animal. You will move on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life. 15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.
16 ¶ He said to the woman: I will intensify your labor pains; you will bear children in anguish. Your desire will be for your husband, yet he will dominate you.
17 ¶ And He said to Adam, “Because you listened to your wife’s voice and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘Do not eat from it’: The ground is cursed because of you. You will eat from it by means of painful labor all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow until you return to the ground, since you were taken from it. For you are dust, and you will return to dust.”
20 ¶ Adam named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living.
21 ¶ The LORD God made clothing out of skins for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them. 22 ¶ The LORD God said, “Since man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil, he must not reach out, and also take from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the LORD God sent him away from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove man out, and east of the garden of Eden He stationed cherubim with a flaming, whirling sword to guard the way to the tree of life.”
Genesis 3:16 ESV “To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.””

Tuesday, January 17 Upholding Marriage
What principles do the following texts teach about marriage?
Exodus 20:14, 17 ESV 14““You shall not commit adultery. 17““You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.””
Proverbs 5:15-20 Holman “15 ¶ Drink water from your own cistern, water flowing from your own well. 16 Should your springs flow in the streets, streams of water in the public squares? 17 They should be for you alone and not for you /to share/ with strangers. 18 Let your fountain be blessed, and take pleasure in the wife of your youth. 19 A loving doe, a graceful fawn–– let her breasts always satisfy you; be lost in her love forever. 20 Why, my son, would you be infatuated with a forbidden woman or embrace the breast of a stranger?”
Galatians 6:2 KJ21 “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”
Philippians 2:4 Holman “Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.”

Wednesday, January 18 Restoration in Christ
How does Christ restore that which was lost through sin?
Luke 17:21 MKJV “Nor shall they say, Lo here! or, behold, there! For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”
2 Corinthians 5:17 Holman “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come.”
Galatians 1:4 Holman “who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,”
Ephesians 3:17-19 Holman “17 and that the Messiah may dwell in your hearts through faith. /I pray that/ you, being rooted and firmly established in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth /of God’s love/, 19 and to know the Messiah’s love that surpasses knowledge, so you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
What principle helps counteract the power of sin?
Matthew 20:20-25 Holman “20 ¶ Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons approached Him with her sons. She knelt down to ask Him for something. 21 “What do you want?” He asked her. “Promise,” she said to Him, “that these two sons of mine may sit, one on Your right and the other on Your left, in Your kingdom.” 22 But Jesus answered, “You don’t know what you’re asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?” “We are able,” they said to Him. 23 He told them, “You will indeed drink My cup. But to sit at My right and left is not Mine to give; instead, it belongs to those for whom it has been prepared by My Father.” 24 When the 10 /disciples/ heard this, they became indignant with the two brothers. 25 But Jesus called them over and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles dominate them, and the men of high position exercise power over them.”
John 13:4-5 Holman “4 So He got up from supper, laid aside His robe, took a towel, and tied it around Himself. 5 Next, He poured water into a basin and began to wash His disciples’ feet and to dry them with the towel tied around Him.”
John 13:12-17 Holman “12 When Jesus had washed their feet and put on His robe, He reclined again and said to them, “Do you know what I have done for you? 13 You call Me Teacher and Lord. This is well said, for I am. 14 So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example that you also should do just as I have done for you. 16 “I assure you: A slave is not greater than his master, and a messenger is not greater than the one who sent him. 17 If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.”
Philippines 2:5-8 Holman “5 Make your own attitude that of Christ Jesus, 6 who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be used for His own advantage. 7 Instead He emptied Himself by assuming the form of a slave, taking on the likeness of men. And when He had come as a man in His external form, 8 He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death––even to death on a cross.”
What specific words does Paul gives to wives and husbands?
Ephesians 5:22-33 Holman “22 Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, 23 for the husband is head of the wife as also Christ is head of the church. He is the Savior of the body. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as also Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 to make her holy, cleansing her in the washing of water by the word. 27 He did this to present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and blameless. 28 In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hates his own flesh, but provides and cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, 30 since we are members of His body. 31 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. 32 This mystery is profound, but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 To sum up, each one of you is to love his wife as himself, and the wife is to respect her husband.”

Thursday, January 19 The Creation Plan in a Fallen World
How did Jesus confront the reality of marriage?
Matthew 19:3-9 Holman “3 ¶ Some Pharisees approached Him to test Him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife on any grounds?” 4 “Haven’t you read,” He replied, “that He who created them in the beginning made them male and female, 5 and He also said: \%For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, man must not separate.” 7 “Why then,” they asked Him, “did Moses command /us/ to give divorce papers and to send her away?” 8 He told them, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because of the hardness of your hearts. But it was not like that from the beginning. 9 And I tell you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.””