Marriage the Divine Ideal

Marriage is sacred. God Himself instituted marriage and sanctified it by making the first day of a finished creation a bridal day. It was further divinely sanctioned by the presence of the Saviour at the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee.

Author John R. Gunn writes, "Marriage, as God intended it to be, is a union of two souls. It is a union so spiritual that it was used by the apostle Paul as a symbol of the mystical union between the heavenly bride-groom and his bride, the Church. Marriage is serious, more serious than death. Death is the closing of one book; marriage may mean the opening of many books, books of numberless generations to be filled with deeds of honor or dishonor.

In the divine ideal of marriage, there is no place for temporary marriage entered into as an experiment. Neither is there any place for divorce; not only so, but back of the divine ideal, stands the divine injunction: 'What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder'.

The practice of divorce runs counter to both the divine ideal of marriage and this divine injunction. Scripture does not preclude divorce as an escape from intolerable conditions, but it does stand squarely against the practice of lax and frivolous divorce, followed by another marriage. As commonly practiced today, divorce is a thing altogether evil - let us take warning. In America it has become a national vice which threatens to destroy the domestic alters of our nation. God cannot long bless a people who destroy the foundations of marriage."