We have looked at the divine purposes for marriage, which one of these do you think is taught the least in our churches today? And why do you think that is?

A third divine purpose of marriage is to carry God’s legacy from one generation to the next. In Malachi 2:15, the prophet explains that God places a remnant of His Spirit within the marital union for a specific reason, that is Godly offspring. This brings us back to the command in Genesis 1:28 to “be fruitful and multiply.” While this certainly includes having children, it goes far beyond biology and procreation. It is just as much about what we impart to the next generation. Scripture consistently emphasizes this broader vision. Passages like Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and 11:18-23 Proverbs 22:6, and Ephesians 6:1-4 all speak to the responsibility of forming children in the ways of the Lord. Not through force or coercion, but through embodied faith-a life that children can see, experience, and imitate. When a husband and wife live their marriage in a way that reflects the image of God and testifies to the gospel, they are already teaching their children about love, authority, submission, grace, forgiveness, and covenant faithfulness. In this way, marriage becomes the environment where God’s purposes reinforce one another. As marriage reflects God’s image and proclaims the gospel, it naturally shapes the next generation. And as children are shaped within that environment, the legacy of God’s design for marriage continues to grow and multiply. God’s three purposes for marriage are not isolated from eachother on the contrary, they strengthen and increase one another, generation after generation.

In Ephesians 5:22–33, the apostle Paul presents marriage not primarily as a set of rules, but as a living testimony of the gospel. Too often, our attention narrows quickly to verses 22 and 23 with words about submission and headship. When that happens, we can end up reading the passage through a purely human lens, reducing it to power or pecking order. But when we slow down and read the whole passage to its end, a much richer picture emerges. Here, Paul’s primary concern is not about submission, control, or authority, but Christlikeness. In the verses that follow, Paul makes it clear that Christ Himself is the model for husbands, and the church is the model for wives. This shifts the entire conversation. Marriage becomes a lived proclamation of the gospel, where husband and wife, both individually and together, submit to God. Here, submission and authority are not limited to the husband and wife relationship, but mutual alignment under Jesus, for the purpose of promoting the gospel. So when we return to verses 22 and 23—“Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church” we begin to see what Paul is really showing us. That marriage reveals something deeper about us. It reveals how we understand Christ. How we lead, how we submit, how we love, and how we give ourselves to one another all flow out of how we relate to and understand Him. When we understand that, we also see how God is working through our spouse to draw us closer to Him, and that conflict is not as much about who is right or wrong but about us humbling ourselves to God working through the conflict. In this way, marriage becomes more than a private relationship between the spouses. It becomes a visible, everyday witness to the gospel.

When we read the creation story in Genesis 1:26-28 and 2:15-25, we learn something profound about God’s intention for humanity and for marriage. From the very beginning, God creates humanity to be His representative on earth: to steward creation, to cultivate life, and to reflect His character. Humanity is not created merely to exist, but to image God. Already in Genesis 1 we hear God say, “Let us make mankind in our image.” Even here, we catch a glimpse of God’s triune nature. In Genesis 2, when God forms man from the dust and breathes His Spirit into him, we see life emerging from relationship. But then God says something striking:“It is not good that the man should be alone.” (Gen 2:18) This is often read as a statement about loneliness, but the deeper issue is not companionship, it’s representation. On his own, the man does not yet fully reflect the image of God. Something is missing. So God takes the woman out of the man-not as an afterthought, not as a lesser being, but as an equal counterpart. Now we start to see the trinity defined:Spirit of God - man - woman. Distinct persons, equal in value, together reflecting God’s fullness in a way no individual can do alone. This pattern is affirmed in the New Testament. In 1 Corinthians 11:3, Paul writes “The head of every man is Christ, the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.” This verse is sometimes presented as hierarchical or even oppressive, but it only becomes oppressive if we believe the relationship between the Father and the Son is oppressive. Scripture presents something very different. Within the Trinity we see distinct roles and equal worth. The Father gives vision and authority; the Son joyfully submits and carries out that vision. Submission here is not weakness - it is unity in purpose. When this relationship becomes the model for marriage, we don’t get domination, we get harmony. Not sameness, but cooperation. Not competition, but shared mission. Marriage, then, is meant to reflect the Godhead itself. Just as we see Father - Son - Holy Spirit, in marriage we see God - husband - wife.

In Scripture, we find three distinctly divine purposes for marriage. 1️⃣ To reflect the fullness of the image of God, marriage is meant to image something beyond itself — relational, covenantal, and life-giving. (Genesis 1:26-28) 2️⃣ To be a testimony to the gospel, in the faithful life of husband and wife, the self-giving love of Christ is meant to be seen, not merely spoken. (Ephesians 5:22-33) 3️⃣ To carry God’s legacy forward, through nurture and the raising of children in faith, marriage participates in God’s ongoing work in the world. (Malachi 2:15) Every other aspect of marriage — intimacy, roles, commitment, boundaries, and even conflict — is grounded in these three purposes. When these are rightly understood, they give us a blueprint for thinking about the whole of marriage, both theologically and practically. In the coming posts, I’ll explore each of these purposes more deeply — what they mean biblically, how they have been understood in Christian tradition, and how they shape healthy, faithful marriages today. For now, I’d love to hear your thoughts: 👉 Which of these purposes (if any) do you find most emphasized in your church or context? 👉 Which do you think is most often misunderstood or neglected?