Marriage has always been under attack. We may think that this is something new, only since the advent of no-fault divorce and same-sex marriage. But marriage has always been attacked and twisted by our enemy.
One of the heresies the Apostle Paul addressed in the book of 1 Timothy was the prohibition of marriage. It's not known precisely why these false teachers were prohibiting marriage, and in the end, it really doesn't matter. The Apostle does not spend much time debunking this or going through a point-by-point refutation of their argument. Why? Because it's evident to him and his readers that God allows marriage. His argument is simple: Marriage is good because everything God created is good—end of argument, end of story.
Except for the view that marriage is forbidden for certain clergy, today the actual forbidding of marriage among regular adherents is relatively unheard of. Why? It's obvious. Marriage is a good thing. In the Genesis account of Creation, God says seven times of His creation, "It was good." When He had finished the work of creation, "God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good" (Genesis 1:31). It was very good.
But God's creation was not yet complete, for He said, "It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him" (Genesis 3:18). And so He did!
The first marriage was instituted once creation was complete with the creation of woman. This was a very good thing, followed by a very bad thing: the fall of man. When sin entered the world, marriage was negatively affected by sin. Still, marriage as an institution is a good thing to be desired and enjoyed. This is what the Apostle Paul was affirming in 1 Timothy 4:1-5.
Since marriage is good, those who were forbidding marriage in Ephesus were supplanting God's role in creation. No one has the right to say that God’s good creation is evil. It is His realm as Lord and Creator and belongs to Him and Him alone.
Forbidding marriage is a perversion of marriage itself. It twists marriage into something bad instead of something good created by God. It changes marriage's definition and essence. No one has the right to change the rules, the nature, and the parameters of marriage as God has defined it.
With this in mind, even though we don't have the Ephesian heresy to deal with today, our culture has its own heresies about marriage with which we need to contend. There is a denial of the goodness of God and the goodness of marriage as He created it to be enjoyed by all of humanity, believers and unbelievers alike. This new twisted perversion is same-sex marriage.
We live in a time when same-sex marriage has become commonplace and acceptable. In 2015, same-sex marriage was legalized in the United States. Now, nine years later, so-called "gay marriage" is portrayed everywhere. We see it in movies, television programs, streaming shows, advertisements for laundry detergent, music, children's books—it is everywhere.
The effect of the ubiquitous assault on our faith and sensibilities is that we can become used to it. We don't notice it as much, we're not as outraged, and we are constantly in danger of accepting it as "normal" and "the way things are." But it's not the way things are, because it isn't marriage at all.
By God's design, marriage is and has always been between one man and one woman. In the words of Jesus Himself, "But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother, and the two shall become one flesh, so they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no man separate" (Mark 10:6-9). This is what marriage is: a man and a woman joined together by God to become one flesh.
God created marriage to be good, between a man and a woman. Marriage is the building block of all society, for marriage builds families. We are to be fruitful and multiply, and when marriage is prohibited or redefined to include a couple of the same sex, there is no procreation. This is a denial and rejection of God's good command of dominion and procreation. Therefore, so-called same-sex marriage is a mockery of marriage.
Christians should not condone same-sex marriage. Yes, we are to be loving and gracious to all, but not at the expense of denying God's truth. It is not loving to contradict God. It is not gracious to give the impression to others that their sin is acceptable and condoned by God.
The loving thing to do is proclaim God and His creation's goodness. The gracious thing to do is to present the offer of God's grace to all who will believe. The Apostle Paul did not offer a point-for-point refutation of the prohibition of marriage. He pointed people back to the goodness of God.
Our most significant response to these issues in our culture is not to rail against them and seek to call down God's fire from heaven. Too often, we get caught up in the debate and inappropriately relish the refutation of these things. However, we can learn from the Apostle Paul and declare God's goodness in everything. By proclaiming the goodness of marriage and modeling it in good marriages, we refute the enemy and present to the world the truth of the Gospel in marriage. In the case of marriage, the best defense is a good offense.