10d • General discussion
The Legacy of God
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.
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The Legacy of God
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