Marriage is a broad subject and it has numerous definitions by different entities, based on cultural, religious, and personal opinions.
Let’s check out some definitions of marriage from different sources.
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally recognised union between people, called spouses, that establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between them and their in-laws.
Typically, it is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually sexual, are acknowledged or sanctioned.
In some cultures, marriage is recommended or considered to be compulsory before pursuing any sexual activity.
A more generally acceptable definition for marriage stated this: a formal union and social and legal contract between two individuals that unites their lives legally, economically, and emotionally.
Couples are bounded by legal obligations to each other throughout their lives or until death (according to God’s word) or they decide to divorce (according to the law).
A marriage ceremony is called a wedding.
DIFFERENT TYPES OF MARRIAGES THAT YOU NEVER KNEW EXISTED IN THE WORLD TODAY.
✓ CIVIL MARRIAGE AND RELIGIOUS MARRIAGE
A civil marriage is a marriage that is licensed and recognized by the state, while a religious marriage is a marriage that is recognized within a certain religion.
A marriage can also combine these two types of marriages.
✓ INTERFAITH MARRIAGE
When two people from different religious backgrounds get married, this kind of marriage is referred to as interfaith marriage.
✓ COMMON-LAW MARRIAGE
In this case, the two people involved enters into an agreement that they are married without formally going into a civil marriage or a religious marriage.
In a common-law marriage, the two people involved are living together as if they were husband and wife. But there is no marriage certificate or religious ceremony involved.
✓ MONOGAMOUS MARRIAGE
This is the type of marriage where one man marries one woman and they live together until death or divorce each other.
✓ POLYGAMOUS MARRIAGE
This is the type of marriage where the man marries more than one woman.
Polyandry, on the other hand, is when one woman is married to more than one man. It is practiced in some parts of the world.
✓ LEFT-HANDED MARRIAGE
Another name for left handed marriage is morganatic marriage. It is a union between two people of unequal social ranking.
✓ SECRET MARRIAGE
A secret marriage is a marriage that is hidden from the family members and friends. Usually, this is done as a civil marriage, but there are also religious figures who will perform this type of marriage as well.
✓ SHOTGUN MARRIAGE
In a shotgun marriage, a wedding takes place because the bride and groom are unexpectedly having a baby.
✓ MIXED MARRIAGE
A mixed marriage is also called an interracial marriage. In this kind of marriage, two people who are of different races get married.
- SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
A same-sex marriage is when two people of the same gender get married. While many countries still do not allow this kind of union, in recent years there are countries where same-sex marriage is legal.
✓ LOVE MARRIAGE
This is a type of marriage where the parties involved marry out of love for each other.
✓ CONVENIENCE MARRIAGE
A convenience marriage is when two people marry for reasons other than love. This type of marriage is usually done for practical or financial reason.
If you belong to a noble family, you might even marry for political reasons. It was common for royals from different royal households to marry each other in order to form political alliances.
✓ ARRANGED MARRIAGE
An arranged marriage is a marriage that is planned between the families of the bride and groom. In this kind of marriage, the bride and groom often do not know each other and they do not really choose who they get to marry.
✓ THE LOVEBIRDS
If you and your spouse never left the honeymoon stage, then you are just a pair of lovebirds. You rarely fight and when you do, you make up right away.
The two of you are very affectionate with each other and love to cuddle and hold hands. You can never get enough of each other.
✓ THE ONE WITH THE BOSS
Some marriages are very balanced, but in most of them there is clearly a person who makes a bulk of the decisions.That means that they are usually the boss in the marriage.
✓ THE HOT AND COLD MARRIAGE
In this kind of marriage, it is good to communicate and to be careful about what you say and do. You should feel comfortable expressing yourself but consider the feelings of your spouse as well.
✓ THE LIVING TOGETHER SEPARATELY MARRIAGE
This is the type of marriage where the husband or wife are very independent. both have their own set of friends and hobbies that do not necessarily overlap.
✓ ZOMBIE MARRIAGE
In a zombie marriage, you and your spouse are just going through the motions. You might be nice to each other and keep up appearances to family and friends, but the truth is that the spark is long gone and you might even wonder sometimes why you are still married to this person.
✓ SAME SEX MARRIAGE
Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender, entered into in a civil or religious ceremony. There are records of same-sex marriage dating back to the first century.
In the modern era, the first same-sex marriage law took effect in the Netherlands on 1 April 2001.
Today, same-sex marriage is legally performed and recognized in 29 countries (nationwide or in some jurisdictions).
This is according to Wikipedia
✓ HUMAN – ANIMAL MARRIGE
Human–animal marriage is a marriage between a (non-human) animal and a human.
Human–animal marriage is often seen in accordance with zoophilia, although they are not necessarily linked. Although animal-human marriage is not mentioned specifically in national laws, the act of engaging in sexual acts with an animal is illegal in many countries under animal abuse laws.
This is according to Wikipedia also.
WHAT DOES GODS WORD SAY ABOUT MARRIAGE?
- Genesis 1:27-28: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’ “
- Malachi 2:14-15: “But you say, ‘Why does he not?’ Because the LORD was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.”
- Isaiah 54:5: “For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called.”
- Song of Solomon 8:6-7: “Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the LORD. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, he would be utterly despised.”
- Ephesians 4:2-3: “With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
- Colossians 3:14: “And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”
- Ecclesiastes 4:9: “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone?”
- Ephesians 5:25: “For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her.”
- Genesis 2:24: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
- Ecclesiastes 4:12: “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”
- Mark 10:9: “Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
- Ephesians 5:25-33: “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, …”
Let’s read what the word says about BESTIALITY (Human – animal sexual relationship)
First, Exodus 22:19 states, “Whoever lies with an animal shall be put to death.”
Second, Leviticus 18:23 commands, “And you shall not lie with any animal and so make yourself unclean with it, neither shall any woman give herself to an animal to lie with it: it is perversion.”
Third, Leviticus 20:15-16, “If a man lies with an animal, he shall surely be put to death, and you shall kill the animal. If a woman approaches any animal and lies with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.”
Fourth, Deuteronomy 27:21, “‘Cursed be anyone who lies with any kind of animal.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.'”
SEE WHAT JESUS HIMSELF SPOKE ABOUT MARRIAGE.
Matthew 19: 3 -12 (NIV transaction)
3: Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?”
4:“Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’
5:and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’?
6:So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
7:“Why then,” they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?”
8:Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning.
9:I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”
10:The disciples said to him, “If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry.”
11:Jesus replied, “Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given.
12:For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others—and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.”
SEE WHAT PAUL THE APOSTLE SAYS ABOUT INORDINATE RELATIONSHIPS
Romans 1:26 – 32 (NIV Translation)
26:Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.
27:In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28:Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.
29:They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,
30:slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;
31:they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.
32:Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
If you have carefully gone through the bible passages outlined above, you would have noted the following points:
✓ Jesus Himself spoke in support of the marriage between a man and a woman who by marriage have become one flesh.
✓ Jesus never supported divorce. He said according to Matthew 19:9: I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery. It’s as clear as crystal.
✓ The word shows that same sex marriage is a sin before God. This is according to Romans 1:27: In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
✓ The word of God repels the relationship between man and animals. Check Leviticus 18:23 “And you shall not lie with any animal and so make yourself unclean with it, neither shall any woman give herself to an animal to lie with it: it is perversion.”
✓ The word doesn’t support all other forms, manner and lifestyle prevalent in marriages today as mentioned above under types of marriage.
✓ The prescribed way a marriage should operate is outlined by apostle Paul in the book of Ephesians 5:22 – 33 (NIV translation)
22:Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.
23:For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.
24:Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25:Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her
26:to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,
27:and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
28:In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
29:After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church—
30:for we are members of his body.
31:“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”
32:This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.
33:However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
This is the conclusion of the whole matter as regards marriage with respect to God’s word.
Yours in His Love,
Emmanel Obani.
yourlifevsgodsword
Kingdomlovelifecity 