Why the Family?

MEMORY VERSE: “From the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh.” —Mark 10:6-8

GENESIS 1:26-31

MAN was the crowning feature of God’s creation, and mainly because he was created in God’s image. This does not, of course, mean a physical image, but a mental and moral image. Man is able to reason, and to know good from evil, as did our first parents with respect to the restrictions which were placed upon them by their Creator. None of the lower animate are capable of exercising this degree of comprehension. A dog can be taught to obey its master, not out of moral considerations, but because of the advantages which accrue to it.

Man was created male and female, and endowed with the ability of procreation. This in itself did not make him different from the lower animals, but its purpose did make him different. He was to use this ability to “fill” the earth. (The word “replenish” in the King James Version is an erroneous translation.) God had created the earth to be man’s eternal home, and he endowed him with the ability of co-operating in this divine purpose by populating his earth-wide home.

God could have created humans in sufficient number to fill the earth without using the procreation process, even as he created large numbers of angels, who neither marry nor are given in marriage, but he did not choose to do so. God foreknew that Adam would disobey his law, and would be sentenced to death. He knew that his offspring would thus, by inheritance, be contaminated with sin, and come under condemnation to death. So, by his arrangement of creation it was possible for the Creator to show his love for his erring humans by sending his Son to redeem them from death. And, since it was one man’s original sin that brought death upon all, through the redemption that is in one, Christ Jesus, all are redeemed from death.—I Cor. 15:21,22

In addition to being given the earth for his home, man was given dominion over the lower animals, even as the Creator has dominion over the entire universe. This also made man different from any of the lower animals. While man, through sin, lost this dominion, it is to be restored to him at the close of the thousand-year reign of Christ, and because of divine love in providing redemption from sin and death.—Matt. 25:34

GENESIS 2:18-25

Here we have a detailed account of man’s creation, and of how the female of the species was brought into existence. Here also we are informed that man co-operated with God in naming the lower animals.

Our memory verse is a quotation from Genesis 2:24. It is another of those instances in which Jesus refers to the Genesis account of creation, and here he quotes from it as authority for the human family relationship. Jesus was not an evolutionist.

True, unselfish love is the only firm foundation for a lasting marriage. The Apostle Paul wrote, “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.”—Col. 3:18,19

“The husband is the head of the wife,” wrote Paul. (Eph. 5:23) This does not imply that man is superior to woman, and that woman does not enjoy an equal standing with man in connection with the outworking of the divine plan of salvation. Paul makes this clear in Galatians 3:26-29, which we quote:

“For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

God promised to Abraham that through his seed all the families of the earth are to be blessed. In Galatians 3:16 he explains that Christ is this promised seed, and here in the 29th verse he indicates that the body members of Christ are also a part of that seed, and will be used together with Christ in the future work of blessing all mankind.

QUESTIONS

What is the image of God in which man was created?

What eternal home did God provide for man?

Is man superior to woman in God’s plan of salvation?

| Home Page | Table of Contents |