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Ted_Slater
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The Purpose of Marriage

Posted by Ted_Slater Oct 20, 2009

In the disorientation following my second broken engagement, I found myself struggling with the question, "What is the purpose of marriage"?

 

At the time, I came up with the following: "The purpose of marriage is to help each other identify and carry out God's will for their life with joy." While I still think it's a helpful definition, just this morning I came across a stronger one, provided by Dr. Al Mohler:

 

"The ultimate purpose of marriage is the greater glory of God -- and God is most greatly glorified when His gifts are rightly celebrated and received, and His covenants are rightly honored and pledged."

 

Some of you might recognize a bit of the Westminster Catechism in that definition ("Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever").

 

Let's bring that definition down to earth. Historically, according to Mohler, the church recognized three key purposes of marriage:

 

1) The "procreation and nurture of children, if God should grant children to the marriage."

 

2) "[A]s a remedy against sin, and to avoid fornication . . . that [believers] might marry and keep themselves undefiled members of Christ's body" (see 1 Corinthians 7:9).

 

3) "[C]ompanionship throughout life, through good and bad, comfort and loss, sickness and health, until death parts the husband and wife."

 

Sounds pretty clinical, hm? Feels like all the romance has been stripped away. Yes, the day-to-day working out of marriage is fairly earthly, but ultimately it points to something more lofty:

 

"Marriage is the source of great and unspeakable happiness. Yet because of sin it is not unmixed happiness. But marriage is not first and foremost about making us happy. It is for making us holy. And through the covenant of marriage two Christians pledge to live together so as to make each other holy before God, as a testimony to Christ."

 

I guess the definition I came up with a dozen years ago wasn't too far off.

799 Views 0 Comments Permalink Tags: marriage, worldview, early_marriage, beliefs
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I'm not sure what to make of this data from Barna comparing what Christians believe based on the size of the church they attend. In short, the study shows that the larger the church, the more orthodox the belief among its members.

 

Here are some of the findings:

 

  • Bible is totally accurate in all the principles it teaches: 200 or less -- 63% 1,000 or more -- 75%
  • Have personal responsibility to tell others your beliefs: 200 or less -- 44%; 1,000 or more -- 61%
  • Satan/devil is a living being not just a symbol of evil: 200 or less -- 29%; 1,000 or more -- 51%
  • A good person cannot earn a place in Heaven: 200 or less -- 39%: 1,000 or more -- 55%
  • On earth Jesus Christ did not commit sins, like other people: 200 or less -- 50%; 1,000 or more -- 74%

 

So 61% of Christians who attend churches with 200 or less members believe you can earn a place in Heaven. And 50% believe Jesus sinned while on earth. Wow. Since the average church size in America is 200 members or less, it seems that the majority of self-confessing Christians are biblically illiterate. But if most churches are anything like what I grew up in, I can understand why.

 

I went to a smallish church where the pastors who rotated through every few years told heart warming stories for about 20 minutes every Sunday. I remember one called, "What's Your Hurry?" Oh wait, I think that was the Andy Griffith show. But you get the picture.

 

I'm not saying that this type of teaching exemplifies all small churches. But there has to be something behind the data. What do you think?

562 Views 12 Comments Permalink Tags: faith, christian, church, preaching, beliefs


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