Equality #4

I, Jesus, am a big fan of meaning what I say and saying what I mean.

The commitment to "say what we mean and mean what we say" has served my wife and I well over the course of our marriage and as we are learning what it means to be consistent parents.

It was handed down to us by a very wise man and his wife of many, many years the Harvins. Since the night we heard it, we began to try and apply it to our marriage and then to our parenting. As time has gone by, I see more and more clearly that, while Dr. Harvin is indeed a very wise man, it was God who first demonstrated the virtue of meaning what you say and saying what you mean.

As it relates to equality and God's plan for marriage specifically, the God of the Bible has been abundantly clear. Marriage runs the full course of the Scriptures from Genesis chapters 1&2 where God created humanity and instituted marriage between the first man and first woman to Jesus and His affirming of marriage in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 19, to Paul's imagery of Christ and the Church in his letter to the Ephesians, chapter 5, to the final scene of eternity in the book of Revelation, chapter 21.

Of course there are many other places you could point to in Scripture to prove that God has been consistent when it comes to marriage. Despite what the critics say, marriage, the kind of the Bible, the kind of a holy covenant between persons, has always supposed to have been between one man and one woman. Not multiple women. Not two women. Not two men. Not humans and animals. Not between a man and a child. Not between a woman and a child. God has never strayed from this desire for man because "it is not good for man to be alone" and because it points to the relationship we have and will one day forever day (I just made that up...it means for eternity :-) ) with God as we, the Church, are His bride and Jesus is the bridegroom.

Do we find examples of such variants in the Scriptures? Of course! We have an honest Bible full of real people that lived real lives and some of those lives and/or some parts of those lives were in direct opposition to the commands and desires of God. Does that make God a flip flopper or inconsistent? No. It makes us, as members of humanity, inconsistent, sinful, and fallen.

Perspective is everything when it comes to some things. For some, the fact that God does not in any way condone a variation on the relationship He created and called marriage makes God a tyrant. A bigot. A hater of certain people. A being to be rejected and dismissed as irrelevant and old-fashioned.

BUT

It could also be said that God is the one true constant in all of creation. He and He alone does not waver. Does not change. Does not live in inconsistencies. And, that my dear friends, should give us peace. Hope. Joy. Comfort. Security. Confidence.

There is one and only one in all that is that is firm and unmoving. He is the one who says what He means and means what He says. I for one will throw my hat in with that one. I mean...who can compare to Him?

Chris