Yeshua Explored

6th February 2023

Christian Marriage

What are the true issues from God’s perspective?

There was a piece of news in 2017 that has been largely overlooked but, in the grand scheme of things, was significant. The Scottish wing of the Anglican Church had just voted to legalise gay marriage. After giving his reasons, the head of the Scottish Episcopal Church, David Chillingworth stated that “we affirm we are a church of diversity and difference bound together by our unity in Christ”. The Bishop of Edinburgh, John Armes, added, “if the Anglican Communion is to survive it must embrace unity”.

If Church unity demands that Biblical doctrine on marriage is thrown out of the window, then I suggest that the Anglican Communion does not deserve to survive, whatever the implications. In terms of core understandings of what a Church is in relation to Jesus, this doctrine is far more precious than these Scottish clergymen seem to understand, far more important than the survival of a single denomination, regardless of how many clergy it employs or the size of its investment portfolio.

To get things in perspective, let us go back to basics. Marriage has many forms, depending on culture and tradition, but for the purposes of our discussion, we need to examine the Christian position, as defined by the Holy Scriptures. The first mention is when the first woman appears:

Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman, ’ for she was taken out of man.” That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. (Genesis 2:23-24).

After the Fall this one flesh, this husband and wife, were reprimanded by God. The woman would suffer pain in childbirth and be subject to the man, who would now toil to receive food from the ground. The man, Adam, named his wife Eve, the mother of all the living. A straightforward reading of this story tells us that a key feature of this entity “husband and wife” , one flesh, is the offspring that will flow from this relationship.

Crucially, the underlying issue here is about how we read from the Bible. Firstly, we must always remember that this is God’s word – from His perspective rather than ours – and secondly, we should be more concerned with function over form. In short, this means that everything in the Bible is put there for a function or purpose and we must always ask ourselves, what is God’s purpose for putting it there? So, what is God’s purpose for this one flesh? Is it primarily about the expression of love between partners? Is it purely about mutual sexual pleasure? Actually, the Bible is silent on this, but it speaks consistently of one purpose: the production of offspring. This is God’s viewpoint, as featured in the Bible. We are aware that other expressions of one flesh, or marriage, in other cultures, may see things in a different way but the Bible insists that this is His model for propagating the species.

This may seem narrow and judgmental to “modern thinkers” (unfortunately including many Christians) as they try to shake off the old Biblical definitions to justify sexually-driven fashions. We must insist that the Bible is our authority, interpreted correctly as God’s instructive wisdom to us. Scripture is not a means of rubber-stamping our own ideas, even some of our Church traditions. Christian marriage is sacred because of the mystery that is wrapped around it. If we seek to redefine this, we are meddling where we shouldn’t and God is not to be mocked. We don’t make the rules, He does. However unloving it may seem from our limited human perspective, Christian marriage must reflect His Holiness. God has proved His love for humanity and owes us no explanations.

The Scottish Episcopal Church leadership is treading on dangerous ground with serious implications not just for themselves, but also for the wider Anglican denomination. They would do well to heed this warning:

But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. (Jude 1:17-19)

Rebellion brings division, not true unity. And this is why, from our perspective, God hates adultery. It no longer brings a penalty of stoning to death (though it does in some expressions of Islam) but Jesus frowned on it.

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matthew 5:27-28)

As with murder, he dwells on the inner promptings even before they manifest outwardly and ‘do the deed’. He was merciful with the woman caught in adultery (John 7:53 and onwards) and certainly rescued her from a stoning, but she was told to sin no more! Mercy triumphed over judgement, from the mouth of our Messiah.

Interestingly the hypocrisy of her accusers is wonderfully reflected in our current society. When John Major was Prime Minister, he initiated a back to basics campaign in October 1993, a return to old-fashioned family values. This was swiftly followed by a string of disclosures of naughtiness among Conservative MPs, from sexual deviancy to fiddling expenses. Then, of course, Major himself was later found out, having conducted a steamy affair with fellow MP, Edwina Currie over a period of four years, between 1984 and 1988. It is plain to see that there really are no role models left apart from Jesus himself. Adultery is not judged any more as a serious crime against society, just a squabble between affected parties. God is no longer in the equation in our post-Christian society.

The Sinner’s Charter would have the following entry:

Be discreet in your relationships, so that as few people as possible would be affected by your actions. Of course, society has no right to judge on these personal issues. This is an extract from the book, Sinner’s Charter: Are the ten commandments for today?, available for £10 at https://www.sppublishing.com/the-sinners-charter-260-p.asp