"Furthermore it has been said, 'Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.' But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery.”
Matthew 5:31-32

We are in the midst of exploring what Jesus said about marriage and divorce in Matthew 19:3-9. Particularly Matthew 19:4-6:

And He answered and said to them, "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE,' and said, 'FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH' ? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate."
Last time we pointed out what is abundantly clear on its own: There are only two genders. Male and female. Additionally, gender is not a social construct and people cannot change genders no matter how much hormone therapy and or body mutilation they undergo. What has this to do with marriage? Much—in fact, everything.

Like gender, marriage is not a social construct. Both were ordained and established by God in the first two chapters of the Bible. You may disagree with what the Bible says, but this is precisely what it says.

And for what purpose did God ordain and establish marriage? Here are three answers:

Special companionship. After creating Adam, God declared that it is not good for man to be alone. And then He created Eve, a woman. Why did God not create another man? Because according to God, humans need special companionship that cannot be found with another of the same gender. This marriage relationship between a man and a woman is so special that God refers to it as the unification of two people (1 male and 1 female) who in marriage become one flesh (cf. Genesis 2:24). This life-long union is to be exclusive until one of the persons dies (cf. Romans 7:1-3).

Procreation. The first commands given to human beings in Genesis 1:28 includes the mandate to be fruitful and multiply. Though God created sexual intimacy to be desirable and pleasurable, it does not mean there is no greater purpose. It is through sexual intimacy that human beings are to propagate the human race, and this requires a male and a female. (Those who deny this fact are either ignorant or mentally ill.)

Christ and His Church. The greatest purpose for marriage is that it is a God-ordained living parable about Christ’s love for His Church. Jesus is the Groom and the Church is His Bride. There is only one groom and there is only one bride who are united—not just for life (as is the case of marriage between two mere mortals), but the marriage of Christ and His Church is for eternity. This sinful world has continued to try to redefine marriage as something other than what God ordained. Every such attempt has not only defaced marriage as God ordained, it has also distorted the parable of Christ and His love for His Bride, the Church.

What about divorce? More next time.