Celestial Marriage and the Bible 3

Read "Celestial Marriage and the Bible 1 & 2" first if you ever want to see Mr. Jingles again.

As I was saying...

I never realized this since I never really thought that much about the Theology of marriage, but the Bible has a lot to say about it. That being the case, I decided to keep this limited to those passages which explicitly teach about marriage, rather than going also to those which merely describe examples. Also, I’m not going to talk about polygamy (unless I’m asked, of course) or divorce. There would be too much to say, I think.

God wants those who read the Bible to understand its message. Thus, He has designed it (and us) so that we can understand it if we will use some practical wisdom. Also, Jesus says that the greatest of all commandments is to “love your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your MIND, and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30) It makes sense, then, that we should try to be as responsible as possible with how we apply our minds to God’s Word.

Good Bible interpretation is always based on one crucial rule: Always interpret a passage literally, unless the grammatical/historical context dictates otherwise. Knowing the context helps to correctly discern and understand the meaning of the text. For example, knowing about Gnosticism and early Christian history helps in understanding 1st John (particularly 4:2). A person who does not interpret the Bible by this rule might still reach the right interpretation, but only by accident.

With this in mind, Hebrews 6:1 is pretty easy to figure out. The author spends the first five chapters discussing the doctrine of Christ, but now he (or she…?) wants to move on to another subject. Verses 1-3 are a transition, essentially.

The passage about the keys of the kingdom of heaven is Matthew 16:13-19. This is an amazing scene in the life of Peter. Jesus is defining for him (and for the rest of us) what the authority of the apostle will be. Verse 19 is pretty ambiguous in English, but reading this in the original Greek removes all doubt. A more literal translation would be, “… whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven.” Go to blueletterbible.org and look up this verse in the YNG version (a strictly literal translation) and you’ll see what I mean. His power was not that he could cause something to happen in heaven by doing it on earth, but that he could declare on earth those things which were already true. It is important to recognize that there is no mention of marriage in or around this passage.

Hebrews 13:4 is pretty straightforward. The author is finishing the epistle by leaving instructions about some things that didn’t need much explanation. The first part of the verse is constructed in the Greek as a command. A more literal translation in modern English would be, “Marriage is to be honored among all…” The rest is pretty self-explanatory.