By the Scripture’s Own Writers
Marriage
Definition
Marriage is a mutual agreement (contract) of a man and a woman to live together in the relation and under the duties of husband and wife, sharing each other’s lot or portion for good or bad until parted by death. Marriage imposes on the husband the general legal duty of supporting his wife and children, maintaining a home, teaching and training his children and protecting his wife and family from injury or insult. The wife owes to the husband the duty of living with him where he decides and seeking to promote his interests and happiness. She has the duty of performing domestic service in the home and caring for her children.
Origin
Instituted by Jehovah upon Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. — Genesis 1:27, 28; 2:22-24.
Proper for Christians to Marry
1 Corinthians 7:9, 28, 36 “If they do not have self-control, let them marry. … if you did marry, you would commit no sin. … let him do what he wants; he does not sin. Let them marry.”
Hebrews 13:4 “Let marriage be honorable among all, and the marriage bed be without defilement.”
1 Corinthians 9:5 “We have authority to lead about a sister as a wife, even as the rest of the apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas, do we not?”
Matthew 8:14 “On coming into Peter’s house Jesus saw his mother-in-law lying down and sick with fever.”
Acts 21:8, 9 “Philip the missionary .. . had four daughters, virgins, that prophesied.”
Leviticus 21:10, 13 “He that is the high priest… shall take a wife in her virginity.”
Polygamy Prohibited to Christians
1 Timothy 3:2-4, 12 “The overseer should therefore be irreprehensible, a husband of one wife,… a man presiding over his household in a right manner, having children in subjection. . . . Let ministerial servants be husbands of one wife, presiding in a right manner over children and their own households.”
Christians Marry Only Christians
1 Corinthians 7:39 “A wife… if her husband should fall asleep in death… is free to be married to whom she wants, only in the Lord.”
Deuteronomy 7:3, 4 “Neither shall you make marriages with them [heathen in Canaan]; your daughter you shall not give unto his son, nor his daughter shall you take unto your son. For he will turn away your son from following Me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of Jehovah be kindled against you.”
Judges 14:3 “His father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of your brethren, or among all my people, that you go to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines?”
Genesis 26:34, 35 “Esau . . . took to wife [heathen women]: and they were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.”
2 Corinthians 6:14 “Do not become unevenly yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership do righteousness and lawlessness have?”
Also: 1 Kings 11:1-9.
Unmarried Christians Less Distracted from Kingdom Interests
1 Corinthians 7:32-34 “The single man is anxious for the things of the Lord, how he may gain the Lord’s approval. But the married man is anxious for the things of the world, how he may gain the approval of his wife, and he is divided.”
Matthew 19:11, 12 “[Jesus] said to them: ‘Not all men make room for the saying, but only those who have the gift…. there are eunuchs that have made themselves eunuchs because of the Kingdom of the heavens. Let him that can make room for it make room for it.’ “
Married Christians Should Remain Married
1 Corinthians 7:10-16 “To the married people I give instructions, yet not I but the Lord, that a wife should not depart from her husband; but if she should actually depart, let her remain single or else make up again with her husband; and a husband should not leave his wife. … If any brother has an unbelieving wife, and yet she is agreeable to dwelling with him, let him not leave her; and a woman who has an unbelieving husband, and yet he is agreeable to dwelling with her, let her not leave her husband.”
Matthew 19:4-6 “Did you not read that He who created them at the beginning made them male and female and said: ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and will stick to his wife, and the two will be one flesh’? So that they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has yoked together let no man put apart.”
1 Corinthians 7:15 “But if the unbelieving one proceeds to depart, let him depart; a brother or a sister is not in servitude under such circumstances, but God has called you to peace.”
Death Severs Marriage Contract
1 Corinthians 7:39 “A wife is bound during all the time her husband is alive.”
Romans 7:2, 3 “A married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is alive; but if her husband dies, she is discharged from the law of her husband. So, then, while her husband is living, she would be styled an adulteress if she became another man’s. But if her husband dies, she is free from his law, so that she is not an adulteress if she becomes another man’s.”
Christian Grounds for Divorce
Matthew 5:31, 32 “I say to you that everyone divorcing his wife except on account of fornication makes her a subject for adultery, seeing that whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”
Matthew 19:8, 9 “Moses, out of regard for your hardheartedness, made the concession to you of divorcing your wives, but such has not been the case from the beginning. I say to you that whoever divorces his wife except on the grounds of fornication and marries another commits adultery.”
Mark 10:11, 12 “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, and if ever a woman, after divorcing her husband, marries another, she commits adultery.”
Also: Luke 16:18.
Wrong to Forbid Marriage
1 Timothy 4:1-3 “In later periods of time some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to misleading inspired utterances and teachings of demons, . . . forbidding to marry.”
Christian Duties of the Husband
1 Corinthians 11:3 “I want you to know that the head of every man is the Christ; in turn, the head of a woman is the man; in turn, the head of Christ is God.”
Ephesians 5:22-33 “Let wives be in subjection to their husbands as to the Lord, because a husband is head of his wife as the Christ also is head of the congregation, … so let wives also be to their husbands [subject] in everything. Husbands, continue loving your wives, just as the Christ also loved the congregation…. In this way husbands ought to be loving their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself, … let each one of you individually so love his wife as he does himself; on the other hand, the wife should have deep respect for her husband.”
Christian Duties of the Wife
1 Peter 3:1-7 “You wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, in order that, if any are not obedient to the Word, they may be won without a word through the conduct of their wives, because of having been eyewitnesses of your chaste conduct together with deep respect… .You husbands, continue dwelling in like manner with them according to knowledge, assigning them honor as to a weaker vessel, the feminine one, since you are also heirs with them of the undeserved favor of life, in order for your prayers not to be hindered.”
Colossians 3:18. 19 “You wives, be in subjection to your husbands, as it is becoming in the Lord. You husbands, keep on loving your wives and do not be bitterly angry with them.”
Children of Christians Highly Favored
1 Corinthians 7:14 “The unbelieving husband is sanctified in relation to his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified in relation to the brother: otherwise, your children would really be unclean, but now they are holy.”
Acts 2:39 “For the promise is to you and to your children and to all those afar off, just as many as Jehovah our God may call to Him.”
Children Obedient to Christian Parents
Ephesians 6:1-3 “Children, be obedient to your parents in union with the Lord, for this is righteous: ‘Honor your father and mother.’. . . And you, fathers, do not be irritating your children, but go on bringing them up in the discipline and authoritative advice of Jehovah.”
Titus 1:6 “If there is any man free from accusation, a husband of one wife, having believing children that were not under a charge of debauchery nor unruly.”
1 Timothy 3:4, 5, 12 “A man presiding over his own household in a right manner, having children in subjection with all seriousness: (if indeed any man does not know how to preside over his own household, how will he take care of God’s congregation?) Let ministerial servants be husbands of one wife, presiding in a right manner over children and their own households.”
Colossians 3:20, 21 “You children, be obedient to your parents in everything, for this is well-pleasing in the Lord. You fathers, do not be exasperating your children, so that they do not become downhearted.”
Proverbs 6:20-23 “My son, keep the commandment of your father, and forsake not the law of your mother.”
Also: Hebrews 12:9-11.
Parents’ Duty to Train Children
Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go, and even when he is old he will not depart from it.”
Deuteronomy 6:6, 7 “These words, which I command you this day, shall be upon your heart; and you shall teach them diligently unto your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.”
Proverbs 23:13, 14 “Withhold not correction from the child; for if you beat him with the rod, he will not die. You shall beat him with the rod, and shall deliver his soul from sheol.”
2 Timothy 1:5 “I recollect the faith which is in you without any hypocrisy, and which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, but which I am confident is also in you.”
Acts 16:1 “Timothy, the son of a believing Jewish woman but of a Greek father.”
Proverbs 22:15 “Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.”
Luke 18:16 “Jesus called the infants to Him, saying, ‘Let the young children come to Me and do not try to stop them. For the Kingdom of God belongs to such kind of persons.'”
Also: Proverbs 29:19, 21.
Children to Attend Studies, Meetings
Matthew 14:21 [At one of Jesus’ sermons] “Those eating comprised about five thousand men, besides women and young children.”
Deuteronomy 31:12, 13 “Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little ones,… that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear Jehovah your God, and observe to do all the words of this law; and that their children, who have not known, may hear, and learn to fear Jehovah your God.”
Nehemiah 8:2, 3, 7, 8 “Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, both men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, . . . And he read therein before the broad place that was before the water gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women, and of those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the Law. … Also … the Levites, caused the people to understand the law. … And they read in the book, in the Law of God, distinctly; and they gave the sense, so that they understood the reading.”
Child Delinquency, Last Days’ Sign, Results in Death
2 Timothy 3:1-5 “Know this, that in the last days critical times hard to deal with will be here. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, self- assuming, haughty, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, without gratitude, with no loving-kindness, having no natural affection,… from these turn away.”
Ezekiel 9:5, 6, 10 “He said …, Go through the city … and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have pity; slay utterly the old man, the young man and the virgin, and little children and women; but come not near any man upon whom is the mark.”
Romans 1:28-32 “They did not approve of holding God in accurate knowledge,… disobedient to parents, without understanding, false to agreements,… merciless. … those practicing such things are deserving of death.”
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