What God Has Joined Together...

In Ephesians 5, the apostle Paul confirms the Biblical definition of marriage as one man and one woman, just as Jesus confirmed that in His earthly ministry.   God has a fabulous plan for marriage, and it illustrates the relationship between Christ and the church.
22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word...

Verse 33 says this:
33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.  The concept and entity of marriage works, when we operate in God's principles and allow His sacrificial, unconditional love to flow in our homes.   We do have a challenge to model marriage in our culture, where there are those who seek to redefine it, which is what the Supreme Court action on Wednesday is all about, and those that seek to replace it, such as the enormous number of people that want to have some of the benefits of the marriage relationship without entering into the actual union - it's called cohabitation.   In the midst of the perversion of the marriage relationship, we have the chance to hold up the Biblical standard, to love our mates fervently, to enjoy what God has intended, and to give a testimony to the world of the sanctity of His ways.

The definition of marriage continues to be a source of debate in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's rulings on Wednesday.   The high court struck down a portion of the Federal Defense of Marriage Act preventing same-sex couples from receiving benefits from the Federal government and upheld a lower court ruling that California's amendment defining marriage as one man and one woman is unconstitutional.

The judges said that citizens who had been involved in drafting the amendment and placing it on the ballot in 2008 lacked "standing", in other words, they were not governmental officials, so they essentially did not have the right to defend a civil law.   Thankfully, the Supreme Court did not issue a broad, sweeping ruling that there was some sort of constitutional right to same-sex marriage.   The decision, at least for now, is limited to the legalization of same-sex marriage in California.

The fact is, there is no debate about the definition of marriage, it cannot be changed by the definition of a judge or by the consent of two parties that want to enter into a relationship and call it "marriage".   Marriage is a much higher institution than what can be changed by man, and humanity, if you want to look at it this way, has no "standing" before God to change His laws or make determinations in His place.   When we "stand" before God, we will give an account for how we disregarded His ways in favor of our own faulty actions.

Genesis 2 depicts this sacred union and introduces the concept of the institution and definition of marriage:
22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 
23 The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman, ' for she was taken out of man."  
24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.  
25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. 

Not unexpectedly, the reaction among Christian leaders was swift and firm.   Some examples:

Dennis Rainey, Family Life Today: 

We may start with anger, but we must move beyond anger and sadness and back to a full confidence in the truth of the Gospel. Even though "truth has stumbled in the streets", we must not lose heart, even in the face of the loss of this skirmish. God's victory over sin and death through Jesus Christ will never be invalidated by any court of man.

Isaiah 59:15 reminds us, "Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey".

 Tony Perkins, Family Research Council:

What is inevitable is that the male and female relationship will continue to be uniquely important to the future of society.  The reality is that society needs children, and children need a mom and a dad.  We will continue to work to restore and promote a healthy marriage culture, which will maximize the chances of a child being raised by a married mother and father.

Jim Daly, Focus on the Family (from "Christianity Today"):

The two rulings don't diminish the job of the church to proclaim God's truth to a culture that desperately needs it. As we continue to distance ourselves from God's design for marriage and family, Christians will need to take their oath and commitment to marriage more seriously...The single greatest argument we can present to the world on this issue of marriage is to personally live out marriage in all its God-ordained fullness and radiant beauty.

I selected these 3 statements because they indicate clear direction to act - to place confidence in God's definition of marriage and to promote a healthy marriage culture by proclaiming and living God's truth, including affirming our own marriages.

Today we woke up, and found that the definition of marriage has not changed, nor has our responsibility to enter into an incredible union with our spouses, to love and cherish them, to glorify God, and to seek to build a Christ-centered home and family, and much, much more!