When we come to the NT epistles, we find that there are quite a few references to marriage. Some passages teach principles of marriage directly, while others use marriage to illustrate some other truth. We’ll look first at those passages that use marriage itself, or some aspect of the marriage relationship, to demonstrate some other truth. In Romans 7, Paul writes,
Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then, if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another – to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
Romans 7:1-6
Here Paul uses the law concerning marriage to illustrate the relationship between an individual and the OT law of God, and in so doing he affirms some principles about marriage. First, a woman who is married is under the authority of her husband, or, as Paul puts it, she is “bound by the law to her husband.” Just as the wife is responsible for her behavior toward her husband to whom she is legally bound, so we are responsible toward God to obey his moral commands. Second, the wife’s subjection to her husband is life-long, with death, rather than divorce, being the only way to end her covenant obligation. In the same way, we are under God’s moral authority in this life. Third, it is still legally possible for a wife to enter into another marriage relationship. How so? Upon the death of her husband, she is free to remarry. In such a case, the law of marriage is not violated by her second relationship, rather, it is affirmed in the same way that the law of God is honored by Christ’s perfect obedience and substitutionary death. In both cases, the law is not annulled, it is fulfilled.
In another passage Paul uses marriage to illustrate the Corinthian church’s relationship to the gospel. He says,
For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted–you may well put up with it!
2 Corinthians 11:2-4
Here Paul speaks of the Corinthian Christians as being a virgin betrothed in marriage to Christ, and he expresses his concern that during their betrothal period, as they wait for the consummation which will occur at Jesus’ 2nd coming, they may be enticed into immorality. It is not sexual immorality that he fears, although that would be the parallel in the betrothal analogy, but spiritual unfaithfulness. As the church awaits Christ’s return, Paul teaches that they should have a single-minded devotion to Christ, just as a betrothed wife was expected to remain pure and devoted to her husband until their consummation on the wedding night.
One other passage is 1 Corinthians 6:16-17, which says, “Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For ‘the two,’ He says, ‘shall become one flesh.’ But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.” Now in these verses Paul isn’t actually discussing marriage at all, but he does quote from Genesis 2:24 where God instituted marriage and affirmed the goodness of the one-flesh union that is formed between a husband and wife. The issue, according to Paul, is that when a man and woman engage in sexual relations outside of marriage, they become one flesh. Not that they are married, but that the sexual union involves more than merely physical contact; it includes an intertwining of the persons in such a way that neither will ever be the same. The Christian’s union with Christ means that we share one spirit, so that Paul can say that sexual immorality takes the very body of Christ and joins it to that of a harlot! In contrast, F. F. Bruce says that “lawful sexual union involves no such deprivation or desecration because a believer’s marriage is ‘consecrated’ even when the other party is an unbeliever (1 Cor. 7:14); it can indeed be used an an analogy for the church’s union with Christ (Eph. 5:22ff.).”
These examples give us some glimpses into the apostle’s understanding of marriage. It is a life-long union between a man and a woman that is separated only by death. Marriage does not continue beyond this life, so when one’s mate dies, he is free to remarry without violating God’s law. Purity and devotion ought to characterize those who are preparing for marriage. And the one-flesh relationship that is formed by sexual union, while approved by God within marriage, is an act of spiritual desecration and defilement outside of marriage. Next time we will consider a longer passage that uses marriage as an illustration of a greater, spiritual truth.