Biblical marriage ²

[olger]

Over the last five years as I have worked with people, I have heard a myth regarding marriage. It is essentially this: "All I have to do is have sex with someone and that means we are married." After all, Isaac took Rebekah into his tent and that made them married."

This is not a biblical view of marriage. A person cannot just make themselves married any more than they can baptize themself.

rejoice always,

G

[Woody]

A myth to you perhaps. Truth to others.

[olger]

Truth is by definition objective and absolute, or it isn't truth at'all.

[Felix Florimon]

If we have Jesus Christ as the primary foundation of our Christian faith, we will define a truthful biblical marriage based on what Jesus established as truthful teachings coming from God. However, Jesus Christ only spent 3 and ½ years of public ministry and some other details of what is an acceptable kind of Christian and biblical foundation of human behavior, including marriage, were added through decades of ministry by Paul, John, Peter and James.

If we see Jesus’ teachings regarding marriage, we need to see His interaction with the Samaritan woman: “He told her, ‘Go, call your husband and come back.’ ‘I have no husband,’ she replied. Jesus said to her, ‘You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true’” (John 4:16-18).

We could easily picture Jesus Christ with a youthful look of someone in His early thirties having a very interesting conversation, in private, with a lady who was probably in her early twenties who had her reproductive hormones putting some kind of very strong pressure on how she interacted with members of the opposite sex that she found to be likable individuals. Something in the facial expression in this lady made Jesus feel the kind of inner pressure the Samaritan lady felt when she talked to men she found to be something worthwhile to interact with. Therefore, in order to continue giving her proper spiritual guidance, our Lord Jesus then told her: “Go call your husband and come back.”

Through His Divinity, Jesus knew that this lady was a married lady, and here He is giving us an example to married couples on how they should interact when any of them find a likable person of the opposite sex. They should avoid being alone in private for a very long time and, whenever possible, couples should not be physically too distant from each other when any of them interact, during a very lengthy time, with someone he or she finds highly interesting to talk with.

By telling the Samaritan lady “go call your husband and call back,” Jesus acknowledged the marriage of this lady. However, when the Samaritan lady responded “I have not husband,” Jesus replied “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” Through this, Jesus is telling us that society has two kinds of marriages: Licit truthful marriages and illicit marriages. Now, if we are truly Christians and truthful followers of our Lord Jesus Christ we should always aim to have marriages that are licit first in the eyes of God and second in the eyes of society.

When we study the teachings of Jesus and the experience of Isaac, we are going to find out that marriage is not something just private between two individuals loving each other. Marriage was created with the purpose of having a social contract or responsibility with the rest of society. Biblically speaking, it is meant to be among members of the opposite sex in order to procreate or bring up children who are going to have a function as providers of food and shelter when they grow up and are mature enough.

Before Isaac took Rebekah into the tent of his mother Sarah, and married her or had sex with her, there was a spiritual and social process through which she was chosen through a process initiated by Abraham who was Isaac’s father and spiritual mentor. This lady became an answer to a prayer Abraham’s senior servant made under the inspiration of God’s Holy Spirit. Abraham’s desire was that his son would marry a lady who had good spiritual compatibility with his son. When Abraham’s senior servant prayed, he prayed for a young lady who had a quality trait of treating people and animals with a great deal of kindness.

Therefore, based on Jesus’ teachings and based with His way of dealing with the Samaritan lady, marriage is something between members of the opposite sex that the rest of society needs to be aware of and able to have some kind of basic social interaction with. Based on the experience of Isaac and Rebekak, before two individuals decide to have sex, there should be a process in which independent observers have the ability to feel and believe that they have the ability of happily living together during the rest of their lives.

FF