The Divine Pattern Of Marriage

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. – Genesis 1:27

There is a line that is clear when it comes to where you stand on marriage, and you will either be on one side or the other. You will either be on the side of celebration by accepting what culture says or condemnation by affirming what God says.

But over the next couple of days, I want to make a very clear point about marriage. Model marriage is what God has designed and what God has defined. In order to get this right, we are going to go back to the first wedding that resulted in the first marriage in history.

As you are going to see, I got this idea from Jesus, because the only time Jesus was asked specifically regarding divorce, He went back to the first book of the Bible and so will we. When we do this, we will see what a true model marriage is. Starting today, we’re going to look at the first truth we need to understand about marriage. Then tomorrow, we’ll look at a second truth. Let’s dive in.

The first thing we need to understand is the divine pattern of marriage. The first marriage was intended to be a model marriage. It was God’s visual example of why marriage is important, what it ought to be like, and who should be married. With this in mind, I want to point you to what Jesus said about marriage, and I want you to notice what He did.

Jesus quotes two verses from Genesis. He quoted Genesis 2:24, which really related to the question of divorce by saying, “What God has joined together let no one separate.” That is all He really needed to say, but before that, He quoted Genesis 1:27, “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

This verse had nothing to do with divorce; rather, it was talking about the sexual difference between a male and a female. You might think that would be irrelevant to the question of divorce today if someone’s sex doesn’t make any difference in marriage, but Jesus does quote it. Therefore, the clear point is that, according to Jesus, marriage is to be between a male and a female.

Jesus said going all the way back to creation that this was the model marriage. For a marriage to be marriage, it must have two qualities: it must be monogamous (not polygamous) and it must be exclusively heterosexual. God did not give Adam two, three, or four helpers. He only gave one. He didn’t give Adam another male. He gave Adam a female. This is the definition of a model marriage, one that is clearly described in Scripture. And this is the type of marriage we should support and emulate as followers of Jesus. I encourage you to come back tomorrow as we continue the conversation on what a model marriage looks like.

Dear Lord, thank you for giving us clarity about the divine pattern of marriage. Help us to stand strong in our beliefs when the culture tries to sway our beliefs around marriage. Give us the wisdom we need to live in a way that honors you. In Jesus’ name, amen.