The Bible on Marriage and Family
The definition of marriage is not up to us to decide.
Marriage is God’s idea, not merely a social contract between consenting adults. Now it’s understandable that those who don’t believe in a deity don’t trace the roots of marriage back to God. It’s less obvious why those who claim to be Christians—or at least invoke the “Golden Rule”—in the name of tolerance brush aside the biblical teaching that “a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24, reaffirmed by Jesus in Matthew 19:5 and Mark 10:7).
Sadly, our culture has largely turned its back on God’s plan for marriage. As grateful we are for legislative initiatives defining marriage in keeping with biblical teaching, in the end it is not political action that will turn things around. Only a spiritual solution—a return to God’s plan for marriage—will bring lasting change and renewal.
It is this concern to clarify the Bible’s teaching and to speak to those uncertain about the true meaning of marriage that we wrote our book Marriage and the Family: Biblical Essentials. Join us on a journey through the Bible and discover what God’s Word teaches about marriage, the family, and a host of other topics, including sex, reproduction and parenting, singleness, divorce and remarriage, and homosexuality.
To read a free sample chapter of Marriage and the Family by Andreas J. Köstenberger with David W. Jones, click here.
