Originally posted on 2014-06-12 14:32:09
I didn’t ask Andy if I could post this. But I feel like it’s about time we have this talk.
I think the church (as in the church all around the world) should reform its view on marriage. “One man-One woman” is hardly a biblical stance on marriage. It is only an anti-gay agenda with a bible verse attached to it. A biblical view on marriage holds VERY high standards for everyone involved involved in the covenant.
One of the most challenging passages about marriage is found in Ephesians 5:
22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.
24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church,
30 because we are members of his body.
31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”
32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.
33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
Pastors around the world are refusing to marry gay couples, “taking stands” and doing their best to enact and enforce legal bans on same sex marriage, while turning a blind eye to couples in their church who claim to believe this book and submit to it that are not following its prescription for marriage.
So if you and your church want to land on the no gay marriage in the church side, that’s fine. That’s where I land too. You can’t change the bible. But you can’t ignore the rest of it either.
For the sake of avoiding hypocrisy, I believe that among other things, the roles and responsibilities of husband and wife need to enter the conversation when we talk about a biblical view of marriage. Along with same sex marriages, churches need to consider what other types of relationships they refuse to affirm.
My point is, if you want to thump the bible, thump the whole thing.
