Marriage & Christianity-What the Bible Says about Marriage

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How does this concept of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and the Gospel of Paul what do they say about marriage? That's an important conversation. Now check this out, y'all. This is a really, really important subject. And you're really going to appreciate this because both Jesus and Paul were both single.

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The fact that both of them a single, that's a problem in and of itself. You can't handle the truth. Welcome to the next Evolution podcast. Hello everyone. Thank you so much for tuning in to the next Evolution podcast page.

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I am your man, Lionel Chaplin Bailey. So glad to chitchat with you about this very important subject of the Gospel of Paul versus the Gospel of Jesus. The question that I'm bringing to the table, at least the topic I'm bringing to the table today is how does this concept of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and the Gospel of Paul, what do they say about marriage? Most of our viewpoints about marriage are influenced by biblical texts and by g do Christian value systems. For us to understand that, we must take a look at what are the two resources that Paul is using and that Jesus is using, and that will help us to get a better understanding of what we're really talking about when we're talking about the Gospel of Jesus and how do they help us understand this whole concept of marriage?

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Jesus's understanding of marriage was typically informed by his background. And his background was Judaism, right? That's where he came out of. He grew up in Judaism. That was his understanding of morality.

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So all he came up with was derived from his understanding of additional Judaistic practices. Now, not the extent, but that's sort of some of the early beginning signs, at least in the Hebrew Bible text that talked about marriage that Jesus would have known as well. That is not to say that he grew up in an environment that did not prioritize marital relationships, particularly between a man and woman. But the Old Testament, when it talks about marriage, it typically always talks about marriage in a male and female context. So his concept and belief systems and core values were resourced by the Torah, the Law, Paul the Apostle, something quite different.

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His concept came primarily by the authority that he had wielded, as well as his connections with the beginning and starting of the early Christian movement in the first century. Really focused on discipline. He focused on rules, authority, and basically the hierarchy of the church. So when we talk about Paul the Apostle and we talk about his Gospel and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the difference is the important thing for us to keep in mind. Both had some things to say about marriage, but not a lot of things to say about marriage.

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Okay, so I give you a good example of what some of the historical belief system as it related to marriage would have popped up in Jesus background. So one, polygamy was a big deal during his time. All right? Number two, Jesus would have been acutely aware that Abraham in the Bible had more than one wife. David had many wives, solomon had many wives, and the list goes on and on.

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Noah right, the list goes on and on to show that polygamy in the Old Testament was kicking off, and it was something that was practiced not only in Judaic or religious perspectives, but it was also practiced by those who did not practice Judaism. Polygamy was practiced by those as well. So that's something to keep in mind. In the Old Testament or the Hebrew Bible, this whole concept of marriage is really this dance between Israel and it's God. So there's this whole concept of God referring to Israel like a bride.

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That marital language is used throughout the Hebrew Bible that Jesus would have been acutely aware of. Okay, so that is something to understand as you fast forward into the Gospel. But Jesus talked about Genesis Two in Matthew 19, right? So to that extent, Jesus talks about marriage. Now, he does in one other scripture in the Gospels where he talked about having an allegiance to Him and the Kingdom of God over family relationships.

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But it is quite clear that in the Gospel narratives, when we talk about marriage, jesus is typically talking about it from not a very detailed perspective. Like he doesn't say, this is who you should marry and this is who you should marry, and so forth and so on. And when you get to the Gospels, you fast forward it. Jesus talks about the Kingdom of God, and sometimes he used marriage as a metaphor. That's very important for us to remember.

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So Jesus, more so, talked about the inauguration or the coming of the Kingdom of God and how he used marriage not as his main teaching point, but used marriage to describe the Kingdom of God. People can't just take the Bible and can't take Jesus main goal, which was the Kingdom of God, how God is coming to earth, and how God is meaning to bring everything all together and create something new. He used marriage as a metaphor to help explain what his mission was, not so much as a teaching ethic. Boom. Got that.

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All right, now let's talk about Paul. But Paul gave us an example of marriage in the marriage of relationship. In Ephesians chapter five, paul sort of used marriage as a last resort in some instances to keep you from burning from lust. That's awkward, but that's essentially what he did. He said it's better to marry than to burn.

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In Ephesians chapter five, he talked about how people should function in a marriage relationship and really got into gender roles. So when we think about marriage, paul and Jesus had some things to say, but it really wasn't a big deal for them to talk about marriage. So if we were to take this whole concept of marriage in the kingdom and Paul's teaching versus Jesus is teaching, both of them use marriage as a metaphor to get over a larger point of how God is doing and creating something new in the world. So Jesus talked about the incoming of the kingdom of God and used marriage as a metaphor to explain how God was doing something new. So he used marriage as a metaphor for that, not as ethical teaching.

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Then Paul talked about how he used marriage to talk about how God was creating something new with the church. So marriage is always used as a metaphor. If there's any knowledge we are to gain from this information, it is this. This is what God is doing anew creating something new in the world, creating a new way of living, creating a new way of being, creating a new way of relating to one another. This is important because there are people out there who are trying to understand, who should I marry and where should I marry?

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What person should I marry, and what are the guidelines for marriage? And that's all fine and dandy, but when you talk about the biblical text, a lot of that stuff is cultural, right? A lot of what marriage was understood as, even in the Hebrew Bible with Paul, is cultural based. So that's important so that we don't use these stories out of context. All right, that's what I wanted to share with you guys today.

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I hope you enjoy that information. You would use it to help grow your life, to get a better understanding of this whole concept of marriage from a scriptural standpoint. And don't be held captive by people who will use these verses and use these texts to misinform you about marriage right? When it came to divorce, and I'll talk about that in another video. We're not going to talk about divorce right now.

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We'll do that later.

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We're always planning to.