Marriage

Upholding Biblical Teachings on Gender and Matrimony

Celebrating the Divine Foundation of Marriage

“God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, and created them as male and female. And God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply.’” [Genesis 1:27-28].

“Jesus answered and said, Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, [Genesis 2:24]: ‘Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What God has joined together, let not man put asunder!” [Matthew 19:4].

1. [1]Encouragement for Marriage

1.1 Young People Desire a Family for Themselves

Marriage and family are wonderful gifts of God that God has given and ordered out of love for people. In the first pages of Holy Scripture, this is expressed in absolutely fundamental and clear terms: “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, and created them as male and female. And God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply.’ ”The sixth commandment that God gave Moses on Mount Sinai helps contribute to the understanding of marriage in its brevity and pithiness: “You shall not commit adultery.” This commandment presupposes that one would enter into a marriage as such: It would be created as an enduring, binding union between husband [man] and wife [woman], in which the procreation of children is possible in principle. It is public; that is, observable by relatives, a circle of friends and acquaintances, and by those in the municipal neighbourhood. Only if marriage is public can it expect and lay claim to the external protection of society and the Church. God intended marriage from the very beginning. Thus the Church also speaks of a divine institution [Stiftung]. Even when human guilt and sin broke the perfection of the divine institution, there remain in it the conditions for deep fulfilment and joy.


Keep on reading … (Please go to http://ilc-online.org/files/2011/10/Voigt-pastoral-letter.pdf for the full article.)

See also for further reading “The Creators Tapestry” on the LCMS website: https://www.lcms.org/social-issues/sexuality

[1]     http://ilc-online.org/files/2011/10/Voigt-pastoral-letter.pdf.