Thoughts on Marriage: Responsibility
Now three days from wedded bliss, I am conscious that I am walking toward responsibility. It is right and good that I, a 25-year-old man, take a woman to be my wife. As I do so, I am aware that many of my peers do not share my conviction.
It seems that the default setting for my generation is "do whatever you want to do." Responsibility does not really enter into things for my peers. Why would it? There is no ethical engine which might produce such a category. Marriage is simply one choice among many that one may make if one thinks it will make one happy. Until one is so moved, then, one is free to sample whatever flesh one likes, to break whatever hearts one wishes to break, and to scorn whatever conventions one wishes to scorn.
It is not so with the biblical view of things. Marriage is not presented in the Bible as one choice among many that man may make. The Bible says that there are some who will not marry, and that this is good. Those who do not will undertake more work for the Kingdom of God. But the vast majority of mankind is instructed to leave father and mother and join with a person of the opposite sex in marriage. This unit is to produce children if possible, enjoy the gift of sex, and glorify God by a shared life. Such is the plan for most of humanity. To choose another way is to rebel.
I don't think that I'm some super-spiritual guy for getting married (hopefully). I think that God has worked in my heart and made me want to obey Him, and so I am by getting married. What an interesting concept for this generation: marriage as a matter of obedience. So often we think of how people today rebel by pornography, alcoholism, adultery, lying, and so on, but we don't often think about more basic, quiet forms of rebellion like refusing to marry. The Creator has given us His plan. We have chosen to walk away from it.
It seems that the default setting for my generation is "do whatever you want to do." Responsibility does not really enter into things for my peers. Why would it? There is no ethical engine which might produce such a category. Marriage is simply one choice among many that one may make if one thinks it will make one happy. Until one is so moved, then, one is free to sample whatever flesh one likes, to break whatever hearts one wishes to break, and to scorn whatever conventions one wishes to scorn.
It is not so with the biblical view of things. Marriage is not presented in the Bible as one choice among many that man may make. The Bible says that there are some who will not marry, and that this is good. Those who do not will undertake more work for the Kingdom of God. But the vast majority of mankind is instructed to leave father and mother and join with a person of the opposite sex in marriage. This unit is to produce children if possible, enjoy the gift of sex, and glorify God by a shared life. Such is the plan for most of humanity. To choose another way is to rebel.
I don't think that I'm some super-spiritual guy for getting married (hopefully). I think that God has worked in my heart and made me want to obey Him, and so I am by getting married. What an interesting concept for this generation: marriage as a matter of obedience. So often we think of how people today rebel by pornography, alcoholism, adultery, lying, and so on, but we don't often think about more basic, quiet forms of rebellion like refusing to marry. The Creator has given us His plan. We have chosen to walk away from it.
posted by Owen at 7:42 PM
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