By bro Lee Tian Seng
If we fail to understand God’s purpose for marriage, then we will not be able to fulfil God’s will in our marriage. God intends marriage for mankind to provide companionship and the setting up of families. God’s purposes of marriage are:
1. To Help One Another Serve God.
God desires the family to serve Him. We see that Joshua understood this and was committed to serving God with his family.
Joshua 24:15 - But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
We also know that God wants us to appoint elders with faithful families to serve God.
1 Timothy 3:2 - A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach.
The Christian family is what God wants us to set up. Many teachings in the Bible on marriage and family are based on this ideal.
2. To Provide Companionship and Love.
God saw that Adam was alone and did not have a companion, so He created Eve and we have the first marriage.
Genesis 2:18 - And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.”
Genesis 2:23-24 - And Adam said: “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
The wife is a companion with whom the man entered into the marriage covenant with (Malachi 2:14) and husband and wife are commanded to love one another (Ephesians 5:25-29; Titus 2:4). Marriage fulfills this need for companionship.
3. To Bear and Raise Children.
God told Adam and Eve to multiply or to have children. Procreation is only allowed by God in marriage, there is no other way.
Genesis 1:28 - Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
God tells us that children are gifts from God in our marriage.
Psalms 127:3 - Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward.
4. To Provide Sexual Affection.
The sexual union is not just for procreation, it is also to satisfy the basic desire created by God. This need is only pure and holy when it is satisfied in marriage and not outside of it.
Hebrews 13:4 - Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.
Man should find fulfilment for such desires only in his lawful wife.
Proverbs 5:18 - Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of your youth.
Are these the reasons for your marriage? If not, what? Young people looking for a mate should consider these reasons and make sure their choice partner in life can help them fulfil the purpose of God in marriage.