A short video on the purpose of marriage by RC Sproul, Jr. recorded at the Highlands Study Center. (4:35)

And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make a helpmeet for him. Gen. 2:18.

Here Moses explains God’s purpose in creating woman. God wished the earth to be populated by men who would live together and create a society. Some may question whether God’s purpose included offspring; for the words say only that since it is not well for a man to be alone, a woman had to be created to be his helpmate.

Sometimes marriage difficulties are so tangled that it takes a lot of patience and faith to even begin the process of sorting them out and loosening all the knots that have accumulated. Just as with a ball of string that is full of snarls, it is tempting to just go get the scissors, cut out the mess, and start over. But in the case of a Christian marriage covenant, that is not the way out. (I am not speaking here of the exceptions allowed by Scripture for adultery.)

Among the many words which our century has trashed, words like awesome or gay, the word federal most certainly heads the list. The word makes us think of big, centralized things, things that make a collectivist's heart feel warm and cozy. We slap the word on institutions so that little old ladies will deposit their money there. Nobody names his bank Bob's Sunshine Bank; the name must be something which exudes solidity and bigness like First Federal Security does.

The subject strikes close to home--often the subject is close to home.

1. Marriage is to be between one man and one woman: neither is it lawful for any man to have more than one wife, nor for any woman to have more than one husband, at the same time (Gen. 2:24; Matt. 19:5–6; Prov. 2:17).