Category Archives: Marriage

50 politically incorrect thoughts for men – 4

Walking With Giants Posted on by

31. Boys need rough and tumble.  They need to be trained, through sports and other activities, to ignore pain, and to sacrifice themselves to a worthy cause.  Women shouldn’t be taught to fight because they’re smaller and weaker and because they are reproductively too valuable.

32. Don’t defend yourself.  Unless you’re in physical danger.  Be assertive, not defensive.  If you’re wrong, say so and back down.  If you’re right, say so and don’t back down.

33.…

Polygamy in the Bible

Walking With Giants Posted on by

In current debates about same-sex marriage, the assumption that marriage has always been between ‘one man and one woman’ has been disputed.  What about marriage in the Old Testament?  Did not David (and others) have more than one wife?  Does not that fact undermine the assumption?

Monogamy was established by God in creation (Gen. 2:18–25), reaffirmed by Christ in his teachings about marriage (Matt. 19:3–12 // Mark 10:2–12), and echoed in the later NT when it touches on marriage (1 Cor.…

50 politically incorrect thoughts for men – 2

Walking With Giants Posted on by

11. Male obligations have been re-branded as “privileges”.  The male obligation to provide for his wife and children is now regarded as a privilege.  No-one has bothered to ask men whether they would prefer to go out and work in an office, mine or factory, rather than spend more time with the family.  But if a woman thinks she would be more fulfilled by going out to work, rather than staying at home, she should have the choice.  …

50 politically incorrect thoughts for men – 1

Walking With Giants Posted on by

Eggs are Expensive, Sperm is Cheap, by Greg Krehbiel.  Crowhill Publishing, 2014.

Subtitled ’50 politically incorrect thoughts for men’, this little book aims to unsettle modern assumptions about women and men.  Krehbiel invites us to consider that the ‘traditional’ way of understanding the two sexes may not be as oppressive as we have been told it is, and that today’s ideology may actually be very harmful to us all.  He develops this in a disarming, amusing, and gently outrageous way.…

Children need parents who are married

Walking With Giants Posted on by

An important study, published in September 2014, showed that children who live in a family with married parents are better behaved, and have higher educational and employment attainment, than classmates brought up by unmarried parents.

The government-backed research – part of the Effective Pre-school, Primary and Secondary Education project  – analysed data from 3,000 children from early years up to 16.

The study identified a number of factors influencing future education and employment success.  These factors included size of family (children from smaller families tended to out-perform those from larger families) and the provision of pre-school education.  …

“Wives, submit to your husbands”

Walking With Giants Posted on by

I summarise a sermon by John Stott on Ephesians 5:22-33.  It is available as an MP3 down here.

Preliminary points

Historical – this teaching has often been used to justify oppression of women, but we cannot allow that fact to obscure its true and God-given meaning.

Cultural – our culture is very different from Paul’s, but we should accept the abiding truth of which this passage speaks, while accepting that cultural expressions of that truth will vary.…

Gone Girl

Walking With Giants Posted on by

With its foul language and a scene of horrific sexual violence, the movie Gone Girl cannot be recommended viewing.  Nevertheless, it invites some comment for its popularity and its potential influence on attitudes towards marriage (which are already becoming increasingly cynical).

A man (Ben Affleck) comes home to find his wife (Rosamund Pike) missing, and the house showing signs of a violent struggle.  He comes under suspicion for her murder.  The truth is, that she has framed him, having discovered that he has been having an affair.…

Love needs law

Walking With Giants Posted on by

It is often assumed that because love is the greatest thing, it is the only thing.

A married man falls for a woman who is not his wife.  “I love her,” he pleads.  “And she loves me.  I’ve never felt the same way about anyone else before.  We were made for each other.”

The same appeal may be used by a homosexual couple: “We love one another.  Why would anyone wish to deny us full expression of that love?”…

What if God has not joined together?

Walking With Giants Posted on by

In Matthew 19:6 (= Mark 10:9) Jesus quotes Genesis 2:24, and then says, “what God has joined together, let man not separate”.

R. Paul Stevens discusses three approaches to the vexed question of remarriage after divorce: (a) the textual/legal approach, which seeks to find out what Scripture says about permissible grounds; (b) a dispensational approach which asks whether the harder teaching of the Bible is for our own day or some other age; and (c) through a biblical theology approach, which seeks to connect the reality of Scripture with the reality of contemporary culture.…

Adultery

Walking With Giants Posted on by

General references to Ex 20:14 Le 20:10 Job 24:15 Mt 5:27 19:9 Rom 7:3 1 Cor 6:9 2 Pet 2:14

Adultery is the name given to a sexual relationship by a married person with someone other than his or her legal spouse.

The most notorious case in the OT is that of David, 2 Sam 11:2-12:25.

Adultery is a sin against both God and other human beings, Gen 20:6 Ex 20:14.

Adultery breaks the great commandment to love one’s neighbour, Rom 13:9.…