29 October 2025
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Acts 2:47 - Growing the church in the Urban Area
Marriage for God’s Benefit (2)
These reflections highlight the fact that God recommends marriage. Let’s look at the investment from both the male and female perspectives.
The devil tries to make us believe that marriage is all about us. So, when we don’t get what we want in our marriage, we end our marriage journey. This mindset is very unfortunate. Marriage, from God’s perspective, is not merely a social contract or emotional companionship. It is a covenant—an instrument through which both the husband and the wife are shaped into Christlikeness. Gary Thomas’s book, Sacred Marriage, reminds us that God’s design for marriage is to make us holy, not just happy. This perspective challenges the modern, self-centered view that often measures a marriage by personal gain rather than divine purpose. When couples focus solely on what they receive, disappointment can easily take root. But when they see marriage as a way to serve God and one another, their union grows in purpose and endurance. It’s an investment with spiritual depth—one that reflects God’s purpose in creation and His desire to receive glory through the union of man and woman.
First, marriage is about God receiving what He desires from the marriage union. Therefore, married couples need to reevaluate their marriage. Is it more about what God receives or about what we gain? Those planning to marry should reflect on what they truly want in their marriage. Is your ideal marriage more about what God will receive or about what you hope to gain?
Consider this historical fact. God made the man and the animals from the dust of the earth. Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. . . . Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. (Genesis 2:7-19).
Deliberately, God made the woman from the man, connecting her intimately to him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. (Genesis 2:21-22). For man does not originate from woman, but woman from man; (1 Corinthians 11:8). He formed the woman not from the dust but from the substance of the man. Man was refined from dust, but woman was refined from humanity.
How does this fact make you feel? If you feel a need to modify or somehow attempt to clarify this truth, then the vestiges of sin still plague you and will likely interfere with your marriage relationship meeting God’s approval. The devil is disrupting your thinking.
God formed the man first before He formed the woman. Therefore, we are told that the woman was made for the man, For man does not originate from woman, but woman from man; for indeed man was not created for the woman’s sake, but woman for the man’s sake (1 Corinthians 11:8-9). The female was brought into existence for the expressed purpose of meeting the needs of the already existing male. God created the woman to satisfy the “not good alone within man” (Genesis 2:18).
This fact may be harder to bite. But I will ask anyway. How does this fact make you feel? If you feel a need to modify or somehow attempt to clarify this truth, then the vestiges of sin plague you and will disadvantage your marriage relationship. The devil has disrupted your thinking.
Before you stop reading, let me balance the ideas. The fact that the woman was created for the man should never cause a feeling of male superiority. Likewise, it should never cause a feeling of female inferiority. Instead, both should feel honored to be chosen by God for who they are and what they are called to do. The truth about sex and gender roles will likely remain misunderstood by those who refuse to accept these basic facts. I urge you to understand this now, or you may end up misinterpreting the rest of what the Bible teaches about gender and gender roles.
Ultimately, marriage is not just a human endeavor – it’s a divine reflection. It embodies God’s creative order, sacrificial love, and redemptive purpose. When couples view their marriage as an offering to God, they step into a sacred partnership where holiness, not self-interest, defines success.
