Ministerial Charge on Christian Marriage

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[Editor’s Note: The editor’s daughter was married on 25 July 2015, and the editor had the privilege of delivering a biblical charge to the couple about God’s creation of and expectations for Christian marriage. The outline of said message follows:]

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I. Marriage and the Family Are God’s Creations

Genesis 2:18 (NKJV)

¹⁸ And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.”

Genesis 2:24 (NKJV)

²⁴ Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Genesis 1:27–28 (NKJV)

²⁷ So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. ²⁸ Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it…

II. Marriage Is a Picture of Christ’s Love for His Church

Ephesians 5:21, 25-33 (NKJV)

²¹ submitting to one another in the fear of God….²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved [agapate] the church and gave Himself for her, ²⁶ that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, ²⁷ that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. ²⁸ So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹ For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. ³⁰ For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. ³¹ “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” ³² This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. ³³ Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

1 Corinthians 13:4–8a, 13 (NKJV)

⁴ Love [agape] suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; ⁵ does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; ⁶ does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; ⁷ bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. ⁸ Love never fails… ¹³ And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

III. Marriage Is the Union of Two Fallen Sinners, in Today’s Case, Saved by God’s Grace

Romans 3:23 (NKJV)

²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans 6:23 (NKJV)

²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 5:8 (NKJV)

⁸ But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 10:9 (NKJV)

⁹ that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

IV. The Way to a Loving and Godly Marriage

Proverbs 3:5-6 (NKJV)

⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart

And lean not on your own understanding

 ⁶ In all your ways acknowledge Him,

And He shall direct your paths.

(And if God should bless you with children)

Ephesians 6:4 (NKJV)

⁴ Bring them up…in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,

Proverbs 22:6 (NKJV)

⁶ …And when he is old he will not depart from it.

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