69. Why are we (single or married) to respect the fact that God established marriage and created us as male and female?
Marriage is to be respected by all so that
A. individuals may flourish, in modesty and self-control;
Proverbs 25:28 A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.
Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
2 Peter 1:5-6 Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness.
Read 1 Timothy 2:8-10, where the Word describes our new life, emphasizing prayer with modesty, self-control, and other good works.
B. husbands and wives may flourish;
Genesis 2:21-24 So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man He made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
Note: Since the fall, marriage also takes on a healing purpose to help keep each other from falling into sexual sin (see 1 Corinthians 7:2-5). Since marriage is God's gift allowing us to enjoy sex within a God-pleasing context and is God's means for raising godly children, if one is of age and finds it difficult to avoid sexual activity, one should marry a Christian spouse, trusting God to provide what we need (see Philippians 4:19).
C. families, societies, and creation as a whole may flourish through the procreation and the raising of chidlren.
Genesis 1:28 And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
Genesis 9:7 And you, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.
Genesis 2:15, 18 The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. ... Then the LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him."
Read the narratives about the creation of man and woman in Genesis 1:26-31 and 2:15-25. Focus on Genesis 1:28: "God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.'" Many young people desire more children than they end up actually having. While Christians have great freedom and we do not seek to burden consciences here, it is true that postponing marriage and accumulating debt are two significant factors that often reduce the number of children a couple may have.
Eventual commentary
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