If you believe everything you see, read or hear about marriages, you would be convinced that getting married is old-fashioned. Marriages seem destined to go the way of the typewriter, laptop computers and DVDs. Unless we can defend the institute of marriage, marriages will vanish off the face of the earth like trial-by-combat, the Roman gladiator games and human sacrifice. The world is a better place without trial-by-combat and human sacrifice, but the same cannot be said about marriage. Nobody in their right senses would dismiss the need for marriage and family building as the foundations of a productive society.
We focus so much on individual marriages and the physical/tangible aspects of marriages that we fail to see the bigger picture. Marriage possesses spiritual utility, there is something eternal about marriage. Marriage is a fundamental component of a social order that the Lawless One opposes. Critics see marriage as one of the social restrictions on individual free choice. It should call for concern that some people see the social restrictions essential to a civilized society as unnecessary hindrances to each individual’s freedom. If marriage and family building fails as an institution, society will collapse. If you take away marriages and proper families from human society, we become no different from animals. Anything goes in the animal kingdom.
Marriage is a very special institution. Not only because Christians insist it was instituted by God, but also because it signifies a place where people can tie the ropes of their lives together so that they’re stronger (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12). Married people do better economically. Men become more productive after marriage; they earn between ten and forty percent more than single men with similar education and job histories (as per a study conducted in the USA). Marriage provides a safe space where people can tell the truth to one another and be themselves. Getting married provides an environment where sexuality can be integrated properly into life. There is no better way to embrace sexuality and its benefits than within the confines of a marriage. Marriage also creates that space where children are put first. It is important to remind ourselves what marriages and family should look like and work towards the ideal.
