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The Home - God's First Institution I. Definition of terms:
A. Home:
1. What we are not talking about:
a. house
b. a civil contract
c. While it is true that marriage is regulated
by civil authority and man is to comply with
said civil authority and is to comply with
said civil authority, marriage is of divine
origin and God has legislated regarding it
has prescribed certain things that are
binding on both husband and wife.
d. God’s law with regard to the marriage and/or
family relationship must be complied with.
2. What are we talking about:
a. A marriage or family relationship.
b. A relationship in which one man and one woman
enter into a bodily and spiritual union,
pledging each to the other, mutual love,
honor, fidelity, sympathy, forbearance, and
comradeship, such, as should assure an
unbroken continuance of their wedlock so long
as they both shall live.
B. Institution: “1. an act of instituting;… 3. a
significant practice, relationship, or organization
in a society or culture.” (Webster’s Seventh New
Collegiate Dictionary)
II. Origin of the Home or Family relationship:
A. God made man. Genesis 1:26-27
B. Saw that it was not good for man to be alone.
C. All of God’s other creation in the animal kingdom
had a suitable mate.
D. God created from Adam’s rib a help-meet or suitable
for man. Genesis 2:23-24
E. In instituting the marriage relationship, God
created for man a soul like his own soul, and yet
unlike, for He made each to be the completion of
the other. To the one, He gave a rugged strength
for toil, to the other, loveliness and grace. To
the one, a courage to dare and a force to conquer;
to the other a sympathy and gentleness to win. So
this, the first home arose from a need deep in the
human soul – the thirst for companionship and a
completed life.
F. It is God’s will that two so united in heart and
soul should make one perfect unit, each
supplementing the deficiencies of the other with
those excellencies which his own nature supplieth.
She being strong in him, he being beautiful in her,
and thus attain the solemn and glorious and for
which this union is intended.
G. Being thus ordained of God, marriage is honorable.
Hebrews 13:4
H. Marriage has been sanctioned by the presence of
Christ at the wedding in Cana. John 2:1-2
I. Paul charged younger women to marry. 1 Timothy 5:14
J. Though ordained of God and permissible to all, it
is not mandatory to any. 1 Corinthians 7:6
1. May not always be expedient.
a. For physical reasons. Matthew 19:11-12
b. For other considerations. 1 Corinthians 7:1,
7-9, 26-28
III. The Purpose of the Home or Marriage Relationship.
A. Since God instituted the marriage relationship, we
must look to the word of God to find the reasons
for putting man woman together in this
relationship.
B. The Home or Family Relationship was created because
man was incomplete within himself.
1. Incomplete biologically. Genesis 1:27-28; 1
Corinthians 7:3-5
2. Incomplete socially. Lonely. Not able to create
and serve society alone.
3. Incomplete in procreation.
4. Incomplete in rearing children.
5. Man, as well as the woman created for him, being
incomplete, were made to be the completion of
each other.
C. Companionship. Genesis 2:18
1. The first reason for marriage which the Lord
mentioned.
2. The marriage relationship is ordained of God for
the honor and happiness of mankind.
D. Procreation of the human race. Genesis 1:28
1. Childlessness was considered a reproach and an
affliction.
a. Genesis 30:23
b. Luke 1:25
c. Genesis 29:32
2. Rachel cried, “Give me children, or else I die.”
Genesis 30:1
3. Hannah prayed fervently to become a mother. 1
Samuel 1:11
4. Psalms 127:3
5. Psalms 127:5
6. Paul commanded the younger women to marry and
bear children. 1 Timothy 5:14
7. Child bearing in relation to salvation. 1
Timothy 2:14-15
8. God has granted to the husband and wife, in this
family relationship, the privilege of
cooperating with the creator in bringing a
living soul into the world.
9. “When a husband and wife decide to create a new
life there should be more involved than mere
animal mating, more than mere biological
processes at work. A human life should be
conceived in the ecstasy of the love of a
husband and his wife. This love involves the
complex blending of the physical, emotional,
psychological, and moral essences of two
personalities. The privilege of creating human
life is too awesome and sacred a responsibility
for the husband and wife ever to undertake it in
a frivolous or licentious act. The home, as God
intended for it to be, is the ideal setting for
conceiving and nurturing human life.” A human
soul."
E. Fulfillment of God given emotional and
physiological or biological desires.
1. Just as God has instilled within man the need
for food, drink, rest, etc., the biological
desires of man are God given and are equally as
natural and as honorable as the desire for food
and drink.
2. Each of these physical appetites, or desires is
normal and is to be fulfilled in the God
approved way.
3. With each appetite, He has supplied an
acceptable way to fulfill or satisfy it.
4. Since God gave us the biological desires, then
He has given us the approved way in which to
fulfill them.
5. God has so arranged it that man’s biological
desires can be satisfied legitimately,
scripturally, and morally in the marriage
relationship.
F. To prevent immorality.
1. Both the Old Testament and the New Testament
point out that the physical aspect of marriage
has a God-ordained purpose aside from
reproduction.
a. Exodus 21:10
b. 1 Corinthians 7:2-9
IV. Duration of the marriage relationship:
A. Genesis 2:24
B. God’s law was, “What God hath joined together, let
not man put asunder.” Mark 10:9; Matthew 19:6
C. From the beginning it hath not been so.” Matthew
19:8
D. Except it be for fornication. Matthew 19:9
E. Roman 7:2
F. “Let not the wife depart…” 1 Corinthians 7:10-11
G. Death only theory.
V. One man – One woman:
A. Though God had power to make a plurality of wives
for Adam, or a plurality of husbands for Eve, He
did not, for He knew what was best for the human
race. Malachi 2:15
B. Man shall cleave unto his wife. (Singular)
C. They “twain” shall be one flesh. Genesis 2:24;
Matthew 19:4-5
D. Name. Genesis 5:2
E. One wife for one man authorized by Paul. 1
Corinthians 7:2
F. Elders and Deacons allowed but one wife. 1 Timothy
3:2, 12
G. Widow to be supported by the church only if she had
one husband. 1 Timothy 5:9
H. Plural marriage described in Scriptures as
adultery. Romans 7:3
VI. Additional Functions of the Home.
A. To provide physical care.
1. God designed the home so that new life arriving
on earth would be received by a mother’s love, a
father’s care, and an environment conducive to
proper growth.
2. If man is responsible to multiply and replenish
the earth, he, of necessity is responsible to
provide for the physical well being of the new
born.
B. To provide for all material necessities. 1 Timothy
5:8
1. A worthy woman will assist. Proverbs 31:10-31
C. To provide an education – There were no schools in
Eden.
1. God intended for the home (parents) to play a
major role in propagation and perpetuating moral
and religious instruction.
a. Abraham - Genesis 18:19
b. Eli – 1 Samuel 3:11-13
c. Deuteronomy 6:6-12
d. Ephesians 6:4
e. Luke 2:52
(1) If Mary and Joseph saw to it that Jesus
was brought up properly in each of these,
then we must strive diligently to do the
same for our children.
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