Mike Wittmer

marriage

I just saw the Supreme Court ruling on DOMA, and while I appreciate the argument from the homosexual perspective (I’d be angry too if I had to pay an estate tax when in my mind I was married to my partner), it seems to be the further unraveling of the meaning of marriage. I don’t think our culture knows what marriage is, or even where to begin talking about it.

I also feel bad for singles, who must be wondering, what about us? Maybe the ultimate solution here is to let everyone select one other person, whether through marriage or some other legal contract, to be joined to for the purposes of health insurance, tax filing status, inheritance taxes, etc. That would undercut the government’s purpose of supporting marriage, but that ship has apparently sailed.

Our culture may be a mess, but God’s people have seen worse. In Leviticus 18:3, God tells the Israelites that their sexual activity must be better than what was practiced in Egypt, where they were, and in Canaan, where they are going. Read the rest of that chapter to see what God had in mind, and you’ll realize that as confused as we are about sex, we haven’t hit bottom yet. So buckle up!

Update:  Trevin Wax has a helpful extended commentary here.

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One response to “marriage”

  1. Rev. Bryant J. Williams III

    Dear Mike,

    First, interesting day for those who believe in “Biblical Marriage” especially for those who are in California.

    Second, I was speaking with a Sunday School teacher of beginning believers and made the following remark:
    “The laws of Leviticus and Deuteronomy regarding certain practices found in Canaan, the land that GOD gave to Israel, were written for the purpose of making the people of God, a distinct and different people based on belief and behavior, i.e. that of the character of God (as an aside this means justification is for the Israelite “conformity to a norm: the norm is the character of God as revealed in the Torah; for the Christian as revealed in Christ).

    Here, in this context meaning, Israel, but by extension the Church; and thus, every Christian who have become a Christian because they are “in Christ.” It means that the norm for the Christian is the New Testament is the priority over the Old Testament. If a person who is not a believer goes into a Church worship service, and cannot distinguish between worldly practices, music, etc. and the Church practices of worship, music, etc., then the Church has violated what Scripture says about “Worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness,” and “worship in spirit and truth.” This is regardless of what the world or governments say on the matter.

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