OLEM EDGE GLOBAL CONCEPT: Importance of marriage to society, individuals

God declared at the creation, when Adam was the only human created before Eve, that ‘it is not good that the man should be alone’. Gen 2:18, a.

Marriage, the union of one man and one woman, is a personal, but not private, relationship with great public significance. Marriage is good for the couple; it provides the optimal conditions for bearing and raising children. Marriage makes an essential contribution to the common good.

“So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them,"Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." NKJV.

The purpose of fruitfulness and multiplication of mankind would have been defeated – had God not made Adam and Eve: hence, the scripture declares (about God), 'He has made everything beautiful in its time. He also has planted eternity in men's hearts and minds [a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy], yet so that men cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end’. Eccl 3:11, AMP.

Another reason why marriage is important is to meet the need for ‘worshipping God’. Since every man will die, it will be a defeat of God’s plan if parents do not procreate. However, procreation should be through wedlock to the people of the house hold of faith, because that is the culture that God had delivered to those who are (biologically or spiritually) descendants of Abraham, Deut 7:1-4.

There are also social benefits that one derives from getting married, according to a write-up, What Are the Social Benefits of Marriage?, by FOR YOUR MARRIAGE. They include:

· On average, husbands and wives are healthier, happier and enjoy longer lives than those who are not married.

· Men appear to reap the most physical health benefits from marriage and suffer the greatest health consequences if they divorce.

· Married mothers have lower rates of depression than single or cohabiting mothers, probably because they are more likely to receive practical and emotional support from their child’s father and his family.

· More likely to stay in school, have fewer behavioural and attendance problems, and earn four-year college degrees.

· More likely to have positive attitudes towards marriage and greater success in forming lasting marriages.

· Married women are at lower risk for domestic violence than women in cohabiting or dating relationships.

· Boys raised in single-parent homes are more likely to engage in criminal and delinquent behaviours than those raised by two married biological parents.

· Married women are significantly less likely to be the victims of violent crime than single or divorced women. Married men are less likely to perpetrate violent crimes than unmarried men.

· The institution of marriage reliably creates the social, economic and affective conditions for effective parenting.

· Being married changes people’s lifestyles and habits in ways that are personally and socially beneficial. Marriage is a “seedbed” of pro-social behaviour.

· Marriage generates social capital. The social bonds created through marriage yield benefits, not only for the family, but for others as well, including the larger society.

Finally, the scriptures affirms that “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall become united and cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh”. Gen 2:24, AMP.