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Marriage: what the Bible teaches

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(What follows is based on the teaching of John Stott, Issues Facing Christians Today, 4th ed., 359ff)

Marriage is a divine institution, founded on the natural distinction between male and female, Gen 2:24.

Marriage serves a number of purposes: control of procreation, Gen 1:28 Ps 127:3,5, creation of a stable environment for child-rearing, Pr 5:16-17; mutual support, Gen 2:20-22.

In marriage, two people become one, Mt 19:5-6.

Marriage is honourable, Heb 13:4, but so is the unmarried state, Mt 19:11-12 1 Cor 7.…

Who needs marriage?

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There is no denying the universality of the family unit (defined as at least a mother, father, and their children).  Attempts to do without the family as a basic socialising agency have been abandoned.

As for marriage, a number of important functions may be identified:-

  • to regulate sexual relationships
  • to provide the core of family life
  • to contribute to personal and social well-being
  • to provide stable and enduring relationships

Patterns of marriage

Marriage has not only sexual, but economic, aspects. …

Seven ways we quench the Spirit

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‘Do not quench the Spirit’, writes Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:19.  What are some of the ways we do this?

Sam Storms:

1. We quench the Holy Spirit when we rely decisively on any resource other than the Holy Spirit for anything we do in life and ministry.

  • Any attempt to conjure up “hope” apart from that power which is the Spirit (Romans 15:13) is to quench him, as well as any effort to persevere in ministry and remain patient with joy by any other means than the Spirit (Colossians 1:11).
…

2 Sam 24:1, 1 Chron 21:1 – Who incited David?

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2 Sam 24:1 The LORD’s anger again raged against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go count Israel and Judah.”

1 Chron 21:1 An adversary [NIV: ‘Satan’] opposed Israel, inciting David to count how many warriors Israel had.

The difficulty here is obvious: in the first passage, it is ‘the Lord’ who incites David, whereas in the second, it is ‘an adversary’ (‘Satan’?) who does so.

1. Some propose a different translation of 2 Sam 24:1. …

Psalm 137:8f – ‘Happy is he who dashes your infants against the rocks’

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137:8 O daughter Babylon, soon to be devastated!
How blessed will be the one who repays you
for what you dished out to us!
137:9 How blessed will be the one who grabs your babies
and smashes them on a rock!

This apparent celebration of violence is, for many, impossible to countenance.

Dan Barker judges v9 to be ‘the worst verse in the Bible’.

Ehrman (Jesus, Interrupted) asks:

‘Knocking the brains out of the Babylonian babies in retaliation for what their father-soldiers did?…

Mt 1:1-17 and Lk 3:23-38 – the genealogies of Jesus

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The genealogies of Matthew and Luke differ in a number of ways.

Commentators have been long been aware of these differences.  For instance, the 19th-century commentators Jamieson, Fausset and Brown write concerning some of the challenges involved in the genealogies:

‘That there should be difficulty in these genealogies is not surprising, considering,

1. the want of sufficient materials of comparison;

2. the double or triple names given to the same persons;

3. the intermediate names omitted;

4.

…

Christ’s humiliation in his incarnation

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Extracts from The Fountain of Life, by John Flavel.  Ch. 18, Christ’s Humiliation – In His Incarnation.

“And being found in fashion as man, he humbled himself, and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross.” Phil. 2:8.

Here is the sun almost under total eclipse. He that was beautiful and glorious, Isa. 4:2, yea, glorious as the only begotten of the Father, John 1:14, yea, the glory, James 2:1, yea, the splendor and brightness of the Father’s glory,” Heb.…

What is sanctification?

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It is a principle of grace savingly wrought, whereby the heart becomes holy, and is made after God’s own heart. A sanctified person bears not only God’s name—but his image. In opening the nature of sanctification, I shall lay down these seven positions:

(1.) Sanctification is a SUPERNATURAL thing; it is divinely infused. We are naturally polluted, and to cleanse, God takes to be his prerogative. “I am the Lord, who sanctifies you.” Lev 21:8. …

Signs of life

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Regenerations, according to T.C. Hammond, is ‘a spiritual resurrection into a new sphere of life, in which he is alive to God and united to him in Christ.  God has implanted in the new-born soul a totally new principle of life.’ (In Understanding Be Men).

We look, accordingly, for signs of life in the new-born Christian.

J.I. Packer writes that ‘the signs whereby a regenerate person may be known correspond to the natural actions of the newborn child.’…

The unborn baby is a person

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John Stott:

‘The author of Psalm 139 looks back to the antenatal stage of his existence. Three words sum up what he affirms. First, creation. He seems to liken God both to a potter who “formed” his inmost being and to a weaver who “knit him together” in his mother’s womb (v. 13). Although the Bible makes no claim to be a textbook of embryology, here is a plain affirmation that the growth of the fetus is neither haphazard nor automatic but a divine work of creative skill.…