GOD’S PURPOSE FOR MARRIAGE
THE FIRST THREE CHAPTERS of Genesis provide us with a foundational understanding of God’s purposes and plan for marriage:
* 1:27-28 makes it clear that God made two sexes and that he made us with more than simple biological differences.
* 2:18-23 describes how God created the woman to be a companion and a helper to the man. Far from being a demeaning term, the word helper is a term God uses for Himself throughout the bible (See Psalm 54:4, Hos.13:9, John 14:16).
* 2:24,25 gives God’s plan for marriage. A husband and wife must leave their parents, cleave to each other, and begin the process of becoming one in body, soul and spirit. They should be transparent with each other, naked and not ashamed.
* 3:1-24 reveals Satan’s strategy for fostering rebellion against God and for dividing husbands and wives.
* 3:6 hints at the passivity of
Adam who was with his wife while she was being tempted but who failed to lead by saying nothing. God holds Adam accountable for this first act of rebellion (3:9).
* 3:7-12 describes how Adam and Eve’s disobedience led to feelings of shame, guilt and fear (v.7-10) and blame-shifting (v.12).
* 3:16 reveals that the consequences of Adam and Eve’s rebellion include pain for mothers in bearing and raising children and a battle for control between a husband and his wife (v.16). Men will experience suffering in their work because of the ground being cursed by God.
Like the first married couple in history, all of us are living out our marriages in the midst of a spiritual battle like the one Adam and Eve faced in Genesis 3. Your marriage is not taking place on a romantic balcony, but a spiritual battlefield. Only through a restored relationship with God through Christ can we begin to live out and enjoy God’s original plan and purpose for marriage.
NOTE: This article is from “Family Life Marriage Bible” by Dennis and Barbara Rainey
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LOVE YOUR SPOUSE 
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