"For this reason..."

In Genesis 2:24, we read: “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.” As I mentioned Sunday morning, this verse serves as an editorial comment on the story of how God in his goodness provided a suitable helper for Adam. Editorial comments appear quite often in Bible narratives. Sometimes they fill in missing information to help readers with details of the story that might not come out in the dialogue or in a simple summary of what happened. In the case of Genesis 2:24, the editorial comment is designed to place the story of God’s good provision for Adam in theological perspective. It is as if the verse is saying: Here is what you are to understand theologically about what happened and to apply to your own life.

Each phrase in 2:24 is significant. The opening phrase, “For this reason”, is no exception. “For this reason” indicates that what follows in the rest of the verse is a rationale for why marriage is defined as a sacred and intimate bond between one man and one woman for life.

Among the particulars of the rationale is that marriage is what it is by God’s design. Therefore, no one has the right to corrupt it, redefine it, or redesign it. Another way to say this would be how Jesus put it in Matthew 19:6: “Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”

On Sunday, I mentioned that one of the greatest threats to the institution of marriage in our culture is divorce. I also quoted the statistic that gets bandied about how one out of every two marriages in our country ends in divorce. A better way to state this statistic is to say that for every two new marriages in our country, one existing marriage ends in divorce. The surprising sidebar to this statistic, according to Christian pollster George Barna, is that “born again” couples do not fare any better when it comes to the frequency of marriage break-ups than their non-“born again” counterparts.

Now then, let me share this: Throughout my years as a pastor, I have known many Christians who have suffered through the tragedy of a divorce. Many of them have gone on to remarry. None of them have ever indicated that there was anything pleasant about their own personal experience with divorce. Furthermore, the overwhelming majority (in fact, with extremely rare exception), Christians who have suffered through divorce and remarried are among the most committed to the sacredness of marriage. They have been blessed with God’s redemption of their personal situation, and they are grateful for it.

My goal as a pastor is to be for, to be an advocate of, all existing marriages. Even apart from the issue of divorce, there is no such thing as a perfect marriage. All of us need to the help and grace of God to fulfill our covenant and role in relation to our spouse. The good news is such help and grace is available from the Lord. He is even more of an advocate for your marriage than anyone else. I can promise that he will bless the efforts we make to invest in our spouses and in his design for marriage.

Tomorrow, I will write more on the role played by the State in regard to marriage. There have been recent attempts in our own State to define marriage in the Legislature. I will write about that from a perspective you may not have heard before…