Take a moment to reflect upon the order, beauty, and perfection of the patterns of God’s creation here on planet Earth—we can find them all around us. Consider the rhythms and patterns of the seasons of the year and the tides of the ocean. And how marvelous are the movements of the stars in the heavens and the beauty and diversity of the plant and animal kingdoms! We are inspired and filled with awe by the cycles of life God has designed in the order of His creation.
Perhaps even more wondrous, though, is an essential element in His divine plan that is often overlooked and even ignored in the midst of the cultural pressures and distortions of the twenty-first century. That vital and essential element is the marvelous pattern that God has set for us in His Word regarding how He defines what marriage is—the union between one man and one woman as husband and wife. We find that this original, godly pattern for man and woman to be blessed is based on the truth of verses such as these:
Genesis 1:27,28:
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth….
God further explains this essential pattern—the complementary relationship between male and female—in Genesis 2:18,24:
And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
God provided a helper “meet,” or complementary, for man—a companion to work alongside of him. In the godly design of the male and female, God has set His pattern for the man and the woman to be united in marriage and to become “one flesh” in their walk as husband and wife. This includes the physical aspects of lovemaking and procreation.
Notice that there is no indication that God’s design includes men being united with men or women with women. If we look at those relationships logically, they do not fit with God’s design. The human bodies of the husband and wife—the male and female—are perfectly and harmoniously designed for sexual intercourse. Yet it is immediately obvious that in male-male and female-female sexual acts, only a makeshift sexual union is possible, and procreation is impossible. God’s Word and God’s creation clearly tell us man was made for woman and woman was made for man.
We saw in Genesis 2:18 that God gave man a woman as a companion, and a big part of that companionship involves God’s design for their loving sexual union in an intimate sexual relationship. Look at God’s uplifting perspective in these verses.
Proverbs 5:18,19:
Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.
Ecclesiastes 9:9:
Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity [that which soon vanishes away], which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity [that which soon vanishes away]: for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun.
This is God’s pattern for a loving, satisfying sexual relationship: it is between a husband and his wife. This is the encouraging and delightful standard He has set for men and women to enjoy as part of the more than abundant life.
However, since the fall of man when sin entered into the world, the Devil, Satan, our adversary, has deceived people into engaging in ungodly behaviors that include a man having multiple wives, sex prior to marriage, adultery, sex with children, sex with animals, as well as sexual relations with someone of the same gender. When men and women choose to engage in relationships with someone of the same gender, walking outside the boundaries of genuine and godly sexual behavior, they dishonor their bodies (Romans 1:24), and thus break the natural laws established by God for their well-being and protection.
Romans 1:27:
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
Men and women do not need to submit to the temptation to engage in this behavior, but instead can choose to base their actions and behavior on God’s Word, receiving the blessings of the more than abundant life that God designed for His people.
The verses we have just read are only a sampling of those that reveal God’s heart for what He desires men and women to enjoy and to be fulfilled by in their joyous relationship as husband and wife. Despite what cultural trends try to influence us to believe, God’s Word still defines marriage as the union between one man and one woman. This is a necessary and vital part of God’s wondrous creation: it’s the marvelous pattern God has designed for man and woman to abound in, as revealed in His Word. This is marriage God’s way.