Just A Piece Of Paper?
Today, more and more couples are living together without the benefit of marriage. When concerned parents, preachers or others attempt to point out the sinfulness of the relationship those involved sometimes say, “Marriage is just a piece of paper.”
Well, I don’t know about all marriages, but mine is much, much more than just a piece of paper. Our marriage license attest to the love Debbie and I had for each other on July 4, 1970 and still have today. That piece of paper represents the vows of commitment we made to each other before God on that day. We promised to love and cherish one another, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health until death. If a couple is not ready to make this kind of commitment they should not be living together. Sexual relations outside of this kind of commitment is fornication and will keep both out of heaven, Galatians 5:19-21.
Sexual desire is natural and normal. However, the marriage relationship is the only place these desires can be fulfilled without sin, 1 Corinthians 7:1-4. Until you are Scripturally married the apostle Paul says, “Now flee from youthful lusts, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart,” 2 Timothy 2:22.
So, girls, don’t fall for this line! What the statement “marriage is just a piece of paper” really means is: “I want to sleep with you, cause you to sin against God, possibly father an unwanted children, expose you to sexually transmitted diseases, make you chose between me and those who have loved you all of your life, and make you the subject of gossip, jokes and cruel remarks, without making any commitment to you or the children that may come.” It further says, “I care only for your body and what it can do for me, I have no regard for your eternal soul.”
Furthermore, there is an old saying that is just as true today as it was when it was first coined: “Why buy a cow, if you can get free milk.” Girls, if the guys can get what they want without a commitment, they won’t see a need to make a commitment. If he does go elsewhere for sex, it just shows the truthfulness of what was said in the previous paragraph.
Another thing, have you ever stopped to wonder why homosexual and lesbian lovers want to get married? If marriage is just a piece of paper, why do they want it? The answer is, in marriage there are certain employee and legal benefits for spouses that are not extended to roommates. An employee can put his spouse on company health insurance, roommates can not. If I died right now, my wife could start drawing a check for my military retirement, a girlfriend could not. I have paid more into the social security system than my wife. If I die she will be able to draw a social security check based on my higher income, a girlfriend could not. Don’t get me wrong, homosexuality and lesbianism are sinful (Leviticus 18:22; Romans 1:26-27; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10; 1 Timothy 1:9-10). But, some homosexuals demonstrate more concern for their lovers, than the heterosexual who sees no point in getting married.
Do the following verses of Scripture make it sound as
though God considers marriage “only a piece of paper?”
Genesis 2:24, “For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother,
and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.” This
passage is quoted several times in the New Testament, Matthew 19:5; Mark 10:7-8
and Ephesians 5:31. The word “cleave” means to hold to like glue.
Proverbs 5:18, “Let your fountain be blessed, And rejoice in the wife of
your youth.”
Proverbs 12:4, “An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, But she who
shames him is as rottenness in his bones.”
Proverbs 18:22, “He who finds a wife finds a good thing, And obtains favor
from the LORD.”
Proverbs 19:13-14, “A foolish son is destruction to his father, And the
contentions of a wife are a constant dripping. House and wealth are an
inheritance from fathers, But a prudent wife is from the LORD.”
1 Corinthians 7:1-2, “NOW concerning the things about which you wrote, it
is good for a man not to touch a woman. But because of immoralities, let each
man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.
Matthew 19:4-6, “And He answered and said, “Have you not read, that
He who created them from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE, and said,
‘FOR THIS CAUSE A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER, AND SHALL CLEAVE
TO HIS WIFE; AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH’?“ Consequently they
are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let
no man separate.”
Romans 7:2-3, “For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while
he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning
the husband. So then if, while her husband is living, she is joined to another
man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free
from the law, so that she is not an adulteress, though she is joined to another
man.
Matthew 5:32, “but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife,
except for the cause of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever
marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”
Matthew 19:9, “And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for
immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”
No, God does not consider marriage just a piece of paper. It is supposed to be a life long commitment that two people make to one another, before God.
Hebrews 13:4 “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.” Friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, think on these things.
By Richard C. Sims, Jr.
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