The Highway Forums General Discussion Open Forum The modern wedding ceremony...

Genesis 2:24 describes the institution of marriage that God ordained between the first man and woman. This text is often quoted in marriage ceremonies today. Even though over time people have become more imaginative by adding other ingredients this text still remains the primary focus of what a marriage is called to be.

"Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." The term "one flesh" means solidarity of the marriage relationship which requires a singular and total committment.


Any union between a man and a woman prior to marriage doesn't automatically make them a married couple and the church is not just validating an existing union. If you are referring to sexual relations this doesn't automatically make them married. Certainly they are joined together in the sin of fornication but that doesn't equate to a marriage.

If fornication created marriage, the fornicators would not need to get married; they would already be married to their partners through the sexual relationship. Yet this is not the case. According to the Mosaic Law, if a man enticed an unmarried girl and had relations with her, he was obligated to marry her unless her father refused to allow that (Ex. 22:16-17). The law did not say the two were already married because of their sexual union. The fact that the girl’s father could refuse to allow his daughter to become the man’s wife is proof that they were not already wed on account of the sexual act.

In marriage a man's priorities change. Obligations to his wife take precedence. To be joined together is the language of covenant committment. Humans are never more like the covenant-keeping God than when they pledge themselves in convenant to one another in front of witnesses before the Lord. Marriage pictures God's relationship to His people (Hos. 2:14-23; Eph. 5:22-32).


Wes