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Related articles:
"The Covenant of Marriage"
"Lovely Weddings"
"Spiritual Leadership"
"Questions About Marriage"
"'Part of' Not a 'Possession Of'"
"Appropriately Appropriated"
"Divorce and Remarriage"

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Church History and Scripturally Authorized Practices
Creation
Judging
Speaking in Tongues
Tithing
"The Covenant of Marriage"

Paul Smithson


Since God is our Creator it only makes sense that to live happy, fulfilling, and contented lives we must follow His instruction. One of the most obvious problems in the lives of many is broken marriages. Our Creator instituted marriage and those who enter into marriage with little respect for God and His word can not expect anything but problems. Marriage, to the majority of people, is something simply done out of convenience without a sense of obligation and responsibility before God. For those same people divorce is a convenience. Many get married with the selfish attitude that says, "I'll get married, try it for a while and if it doesn't work, if I don't like it, I'll get a divorce." Yet, God views marriage to be a covenant relationship.

A covenant is an agreement that involves promises and commitments. The Bible describes the marriage as a spiritual covenant that is just as binding, and just as sacred, as the covenant that God has made with His people. In fact, we find that when God describes the relationship between Himself and His people He speaks of the husband wife relationship (cf. Jer. 31:31-32). In the New Testament the blessed relationship between Christ and the church is described by the covenant relationship of the husband and the wife (Eph. 5:22-ff). Marriage is a holy union before God.

Malachi prophesied in a time of general apostasy and unfaithfulness. The people's apostasy was characterized by an atmosphere of general covenant breaking. In Malachi's time divorce was a real problem and became a central issue in all of the sins of the people. Thus God declared, "I hate divorce" (Mal. 2:16). There is more to divorce that just incompatibility, or "I just don't love him/her anymore." It is something so serious that it involves breaking a covenant that is just as binding and sacred as a covenant that God makes with His people.

A fact that many fail to realize is though it is a man and a woman that make the commitment to be married, they are joined in that commitment, bound in that covenant relationship, by God. Our Creator instituted marriage from the beginning and only He has the authority to bind, or say what does and does not break that covenant. Jesus declared, "..What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate" (Matt. 19:6). A marriage covenant involves more than an individual, their spouse, and the law of the land; it involves God and the covenant that He has bound when a man and woman vow their commitment before Him. The only One who has the authority to declare what is a legitimate reason to break that covenant is the one who bound it, and that is God. He has given only one exception to this lifetime covenant which we will discuss next time.

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