What Does God Say About Marriage and Relationships?

Not everyone is mature enough to live a married life. It requires a certain aptitude and grace. Marriage is not for everyone. Some, from birth seemingly, never give marriage a thought. Others never get asked—or accepted. And some decide not to get married for kingdom reasons. But if you are capable of growing into the largeness of marriage, do it.

Relationship is how two or more people, groups, countries talk to, behave toward, and deal with each other. Most times relationships lead to marriage. Marriage is the legally or formally recognized union of two people as partners. Specifically, marriage is a union between a man and a woman to become husband and wife.

Marriage is more than a physical union; it is also a spiritual and emotional union. God himself instituted marriage. The first marriage made official by God took place in the Garden of Eden. When God created a woman out of Adam’s rib and brought the woman to Adam, and both of them became one flesh( Genesis 2:24; For this reason, a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh).

God Approves Marriage

God says marriage is for procreation- Genesis 1:22; And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

Genesis 2:18

God introduced marriage for companionship- Genesis 2:18; Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.”

love–Romans 12:10

God instituted marriage is for love–Romans 12:10; Be devoted to one another in love. Honour one another above yourselves.

GENDER ROLES AND EXPECTATIONS OF GOD IN MARRIAGE.

Biblically there are gender roles in marriage and God expects a lot from both genders. A husband has a role to play as well as the wife.

WIVES

Ephesians 5:22, God commanded Wives to understand and support their husbands in ways that show their support for Christ.

God expects wives to submit to their husbands just as Church submits to Christ.

A wife is a helpmate to her husband- Genesis 2:18; Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.”

A wife is expected to learn to love her husband unconditionally- Titus 2:4; so that they may encourage the young women to tenderly love their husbands and their children. In Titus 2:5,

God expects the wife to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

A wife is to be faithful to her husband- Romans 7:2; For example, by law, a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him.

A wife watches over the affairs of her household.

HUSBANDS

God also expects the husband to play their roles.

Ephesians 5:25; Husbands go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church—a love marked by giving, not getting. Christ’s love makes the church whole.

God desires that in every marriage, the man is the head of the family- 1st Corinthians11:3; But I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.

The husband provides leadership to his wife the way Christ does to his church, not by domineering but by cherishing.

The husband is to provide for the family-1 Timothy 5:8; Anyone who neglects to care for family members in need repudiates the faith. That’s worse than refusing to believe in the first place. Husbands are to love their wives and never treat them harshly.

God expects a husband and his wife to have sexual relations- 1st Corinthians 7:2-6; Sexual drives are strong, but marriage is strong enough to contain them and provide for a balanced and fulfilling sexual life in a world of sexual disorder. The marriage bed must be a place of mutuality—the husband seeking to satisfy his wife, the wife seeking to satisfy her husband.

Marriage is not a place to “stand up for your rights.” Marriage is a decision to serve the other, whether in bed or out. Abstaining from sex is permissible for sometimes if you both agree, and if it’s for prayer and fasting—but only for such times. Then come back together again. A husband is supposed to stay with the wife till death do them part. Divorce was never part of God’s original plan. Any man who divorces his wife makes her an adulteress ( unless she has already made herself an adulteress by being unfaithful)

Conclusion

Finally, in the words of Paul inspired by the Spirit he said, celibacy is not for everyone any more than marriage is. God gives the gift of the single life to some, the gift of the married life to others. He also admonished that if unmarried ones and widows cannot manage their desires and emotions, they should, by all means, go ahead and get married. If you are a wife with an unbeliever, hold onto to him- the unbelieving husband shares in the holiness of his wife.