The word marriage can be defined as the state in which a man and a woman live together in an intimate relationship with the approval of their respective social groups. It is also a community of life, which consists of a set of life and willingness for sexual relations (conjugal marriage). Their impossibility or refusal can be motivated by reasons of nullity or divorce. It was instituted following the creation of a second being called woman. Also, to better understand marriage, it would be necessary to understand, to know who the woman is. In my opinion, she is the mystery of mysteries of human romantic relationships. In fact, the woman is the other me who is not me and without whom I can do nothing significant.

“The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.‘” Genesis 2:18

“Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.’ That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.” Genesis 2:21–24

I like to say that marriage is for the aged husband. Moreover, when a man and a woman once ready, desire together to cross the threshold of couple life, they go through formal stages to form what is called a family. In Hebrew, the word alluding to the term family is “bayit,” which means ‘house’; and according to the biblical sense, the family represents all the people who live under the same roof (Exodus 12:4) and presented under the notion of “Mishpachah,” which means clan, contrary to the vision that we all conceive today, that is to say a group composed of a father, a mother, and children.

The Bible also teaches us that the family denotes a broader concept of people living together (including even servants and friends). Know that in the early church, the family was an important factor of growth and stability, and in the Greek cities, it (the church) was born in the midst of it (see Acts 16:15; Acts 16:31–34). If you read the New Testament carefully, you will notice that it mentions churches in houses; for example, in Romans 16:5, Paul says this: “Greet also the church that is in their house…“

Each couple is in a way a representation of the church, which is why we must ensure that our homes are not the basis of murmuring, criticism, quarrels, and futile discussions, but on the contrary, places used to worship God.

Christians are members of God’s family and that is why they are called brothers and sisters. It is worth noting that only marriage can give a group of individuals the title of family. In the Old Testament, through the example of Isaac and Rebekah, of Jacob, Leah, and Rachel, we understand that only marriages between two people belonging to the same clan were allowed. For me, understanding the family is understanding marriage; also, succeeding in marriage means having an exact notion of what a family is.

If you ever wonder what marriage is, the simplest answer I could give you is this: it is actually a state originally instituted by God in which a man and a woman live together in an intimate relationship with the approval of their respective social groups. There are three types distinguished which are somewhat stages towards the realization of the couple:

This text is an excerpt from the book “MYDUMAR: The Mystery of Marriage” written by Rév BLAISE KANGA.

We invite you to read the following article “The different types of marriage.”