What is marriage for? Have you ever wondered that? I mean, sure, there are lots of reasons that marriage exists and that it works. It is for companionship. We are wired for relationship, and marriage is the ultimate realization of relationship at its most intimate level. It also provides a basic building block for society. Our world would be in real trouble if the family unit broke down completely and ceased to exist.
Marriage is also, obviously, for procreation. “Go and fill the earth,” God told Adam and Eve in the beginning. But it’s not as clinical as all that. Marriage, and sex within marriage, is also for our enjoyment; it is for our happiness. Marriage is a good thing and a fun thing when it’s done right.
Advertisement
That all sounds well and good. But is there more to it than that? Is marriage there simply to bring us a measure of happiness in this world? Or is there a deeper spiritual truth connected with this sacred union?
I think you know where I’m going. I believe there is something very spiritual, and even a bit mysterious, bound up within the marital bonds. The sacrament of marriage is used to represent Christ’s relationship with the church because, like the church, marriage sets us apart for something greater than ourselves.
God, through Christ, has set the church apart and made her holy to accomplish His work in the world. The same is true in the “holy” institution of marriage. God uses this relationship of giving and taking, sharing and caring, sickness and health, to help sanctify us to Himself, to make us pure, to make us holy.
“
Marriage, I believe, is not so much for our happiness as it is for our holiness.”