The Purpose Of Marriage

THE PURPOSE OF MARRIAGE

God is the Helper of His people! Does that mean He is inferior to them? Does that mean He is second-rate? No way! He is the Sovereign Creator of the Universe. He is in no way inferior to His creation.

So it is with women. Even though God made her to help her man, she is in no way inferior to him. The fact is she has the honored role, the stronger role in many respects.

That's so she and her husband, together, can accomplish the mission God has given them to "fill the earth and subdue it," Genesis 1:28 says, and to "rule over...every living creature."

I like the way Kevin and Karen Miller put it in their book, More than You and Me. They write: "Adam and Eve must have had fun working together in the garden. No commutes, no child care, no financial worries. Just the opportunity to be with each other all day and feel the satisfaction of doing something together that neither could do alone.

"We hunger for this today: cooperating together, meshing, working like a mountain climbing team, ascending the peak of our dream, and then holding each other at the end of the day. God has planted this hunger deep within every married couple. It's more than a hunger to create new life. It's...a hunger to do something significant together. According to God's Word, we were joined to make a difference. We were married for a mission.

"Marriage expert Dennis Rainey says, 'One of the missing ingredients of couples today is they do not have a mission; they do not have a sense of God having called them together to do something as a couple.' But often, as we begin to feel this basic longing, we don't know what it is. We get the 'seven-year itch' or the '12-year anger' or the '18-year blahs.' We think, WHAT'S WRONG WITH US? OUR COMPANIONSHIP MAY NOT BE PERFECT, BUT WE HAVE EACH OTHER. AND, many can add, WE HAVE OUR CHILDREN. SO WHAT ARE WE MISSING?

"We may be missing [a big part] of what God created marriage for -- serving Him together. Counselor James H. Olthuis writes, 'To try to keep love just for us...is to kill it slowly... We are not made just for each other; we are called to a ministry of love to everyone we meet and in all we do. In marriage, too, Jesus' words hold true; in saving our lives we lose them, and in losing our lives in love to others, we drink of life more deeply.'"

(Kevin and Karen Miller, More Than You and Me, Touching Others Through The Strength of Your Marriage, Focus On The Family Publishing, 1994, pp. 8,9. From a sermon by C. Philip Green, The Worth of a Woman, 5/5/2011)