Is it just me, or have other people noticed that all of a sudden everyone wants to talk about marriage? I think, overall, an elevated level of discussion over one of the most important spiritual and cultural issues of our time is a good thing. It forces us to address all the “elephants in the room,” both theologically and culturally.
BeamBiblically speaking, marriage can best be described as “holy matrimony.” I hope you will bear with me while I quote that famous contemporary gospel singer Mylon LeFevre, who said, “Anyone can have a marriage, but only God can give holy matrimony.” Spiritually speaking, that is absolutely true. Many Christians view marriage in a very shallow, Hollywood kind of way that elevates the carnal, dismisses the spiritual, and celebrates the selfish nature of eros while abandoning the self-sacrificing, eternal aspects of agape love.
Paul certainly didn’t see it that way. In his letter to the church at Ephesus, after a rather lengthy discussion of the role of the husband and of the wife in marriage, Paul quoted from the book of Genesis, saying, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh” (Ephesians 3:31). In that short but theologically packed statement, Paul reminds us that God-ordained marriage revolves around the relationship of one man and one woman, which excludes all other man-made forms (same-sex marriage, polygamy, incest, etc.). Then Paul elevated marriage to a point most Christians don’t fully understand. In verse 32, he said, “This mystery is profound, but I am talking about Christ and the Church.”
In other words, Christians need to see marriage spiritually as a holy estate designed by God to be the foundational relationship of humanity. Culturally, we should see marriage as a visible representation to the world of the intimate relationship between Christ and His bride, the Church. When we take these two facts together, we should not be surprised to see marriage come under the kind of intense satanic attack we see today. For Satan, the destruction of marriage is a “twofer.” Bring down marriage and you undermine the church and mar the witness of the church to the world. If you destroy the home, you get the husband, the wife, the children, and you remove one of the key guardians against cultural decay while distorting the physical witness of the love of Jesus for His Body, the Church.
When it comes to the cultural side of defending marriage, we need to remember that we live in a constitutional republic. This magnificent form of government, conceived in the minds of our founders and built firmly upon the truth of God’s Word, protects us from the abuse of a pure democracy (mob rule or the tyranny of an unchecked majority) and from the absolute power of a dictator or theocrat. We the people are the deciders of whose morality will be enforced by the rule of law.
All laws have a moral foundation. They act as fences, keeping in and promoting those things that are good and protecting us against the things that are bad. When the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives steps up to the podium and calls the House to order, he or she looks into the face of Moses, the Lawgiver, located directly in front of the Speaker at the back of the House chamber. When the United States Supreme Court Justices listen to oral arguments on the constitutionality of a law, they do so with the Ten Commandments as a backdrop. For more than 150 years of our history, almost no one questioned the undeniable fact that all of our laws have a moral foundation – and that foundation is the Word of God.
Today, we are guilty of over-spiritualizing marriage if we think the government has no business having a say about marriage. Marriage is such a foundational component of a healthy society that it must be protected by law. Embracing biblical marriage could reverse almost all of the negative trends of our culture. High poverty rates, the rampant spread of STDs, the devaluation of life, and our high teen pregnancy rates would all be dramatically improved by healthy, biblical marriages.
In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), Jesus said His disciples are “salt” and “light.” Salt retards the process of decay in culture, while light rolls back the darkness. When we step into the cultural battle over marriage and proclaim the truth, our saltiness slows our collective moral decay, and our light rolls back the darkness so that everyone can see how important marriage is for the culture and how it reflects the love of Christ for the Church.
Will we be called narrow-minded and mean-spirited? Yes, not because we act in a narrow-minded or mean-spirited way (although some Christians do), but primarily because advocates for same-sex marriage have won the battle of language. They own the rhetoric and control the definition of tolerance. You can “speak the truth in love” with a broken heart over the sinfulness of homosexuality and you will still be labeled an intolerant hater. Why? Because the only path to acceptance is the path that accepts homosexual marriage as equal to heterosexual marriage, both in the eyes of the law and in the eyes of God. Since homosexuality is clearly condemned by the Word of God (Leviticus 18:22, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, Romans 1:26-32, etc.), Christians can never agree with those who would change the definition of marriage. However, we do not have to be disagreeable.
One final thought: The definition of marriage is a legal and moral issue that will be decided for the culture by the courts. If same-sex marriage is upheld, it will quickly become a religious liberty issue for Christians. It will not be long before Christians will be echoing Peter’s words: “We must obey God rather than men.”
– Beam, a graduate of Limestone College and Southern and Southeastern seminaries, is vice president for the Christian Worldview Center and director of student services at North Greenville University.