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"Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed." - Genesis 2:24-25

When it comes to the subject of marriage, it's worth taking a moment to think biblically about what's going on in our culture. The state of love is a quagmire. Conditions are worse than they were a year ago and much worse than five years ago. We need to come face-to-face with two giant truths from God's Word about human love.

First, sexuality is God's idea. Human sexuality - as God designed it - is good within the boundary that God established. And that boundary is the marriage relationship. Genesis 1:31 says, "God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good." Genesis 2:25 says that He brought the man and woman together. "And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed." There was no reason to be ashamed. Their relationship was righteous, holy, and part of God's good plan for them. Genesis 2:24 says, "A man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." So a man and a woman together - physically, sexually, intimately - is pleasing and honoring to God. Marriage is part of God's provision for the welfare and happiness of a man and a woman for a lifetime together. It's the way He wants it and the way He created it! Hebrews 13:4 says, "Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled." Intimacy between a man and a woman, committed together under God for a lifetime, is righteous. But the verse goes on to say, "God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous."

The second truth about human love from God's Word is that sexual sin is personally damaging. Today over half of all first marriages are preceded by living together, compared to virtually none fifty years ago. Extramarital affairs are rampant in our society. One of the by-products of this of course is sexually transmitted diseases, which have almost doubled in America in the last decade.
Author Jim Nelson, speaking of the fall of great civilizations - Egypt, Carthage, Greece, Rome - said, "The collapse of society begins each time with a period of obvious moral decay."

No one has the moral authority to stand up - apparently - and say, "This is wrong! And it's self-destructive. Sin is destroying people and families." God has lovingly placed boundaries around sexual intimacy and declares it to be holy within the lifetime bond of marriage. He longs for us to honor those boundaries.


James MacDonald – www.walkintheword.com