Article 25

Of marriage. Concerning marriage we confess: that it is honorable and an ordinance of God, who in the beginning established this state with the two human beings first created in the image of God, blessed it, and joined them together. And since this divine ordinance, through the hardness of the heart and the evil wantonness of man, had fallen into great disorder, so that men, through the lusts of the flesh, married whomever they wanted, and took many wives, and then, for various reasons, dismissed them by a bill of divorce and married others; therefore Christ, as a perfect Lawgiver, rejected and abolished the writing of divorce and the permission of Moses, together with all the abuses of it, referring all who heard and believed Him to the original ordinance of His heavenly Father, established with Adam and Eve in Paradise; and so He re-established marriage between one man and one woman, and bound the bond of matrimony so inseparably and firmly that they might not, on any account, separate and marry another, except in case of adultery or death.

Hence every believer who desires to enter into matrimony must follow this doctrine of Christ and the example given above, and unite himself in marriage only with one person who has been, by a like faith with him, born from above, of God, and renewed, and created after the image of God. And such persons, after their parents and the church have given their consent, shall be joined together by a minister in the presence of the church, with fervent prayer to God. This we believe to be marrying in the Lord, of which God Himself is the Author and Joiner. Second Peter 1, verse 1; John 3, verse 3; First John 5, verse 4.

But all unregenerate persons, who are not yet sanctified by faith in Christ, and who marry in this way, we also regard as being in honorable matrimony, but not in the Lord. Hebrews 13, verse 4; First Corinthians 7, verse 12.

And as Christ accepts none as His bride and a member of His body except those alone who are united with Him by faith, so also believers cannot sever their bodies, which are sanctified and surrendered to God as members of Christ and temples of the Holy Ghost, from Christ, and unite them in marriage with the unregenerate, and so be unequally yoked together with unbelievers, who are not known to the church, by faith and Christian baptism, as brothers or sisters in fellowship, seeing that baptism is the first Christian ordinance in the church, after which all the other ordinances of God follow. Ephesians 5, verse 30; Galatians 3, verse 26.

Thus marriage is advised by the Holy Ghost, to avoid fornication and all uncleanness; but if anyone does not need this, and can, without it, keep himself pure and undefiled, in a virginal state, in order to serve the Lord better and without hindrance, it is commended still more highly. Hence marriage is free for all, but it is no commandment:

How God the Lord in the beginning established marriage, read: "And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helpmeet for him." "And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, He made a woman, and brought her to the man." "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall be one flesh." Genesis 2, verses 18, 22 and 24.

How Christ rejected all abuses of marriage, and renewed the ordinance of His Father, read: "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall be one flesh? Therefore they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder." Matthew 19, verses 4 to 6 and 8; First Corinthians 7, verse 10.

"Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." Hebrews 13, verse 4; First Corinthians 7, verse 2.

"The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband lives; but if her husband is dead, she is at liberty to be married to whomever she wishes; only in the Lord." First Corinthians 7, verse 39; Genesis 1, verse 27; Genesis 24, verse 4; Exodus 34, verse 16; Numbers 36, verse 6; Deuteronomy 7, verse 3; Tobit 7, verse 13.

Concerning those who transgress this, and their punishment, read: Genesis 6, verse 3; Numbers 25, verse 1; Nehemiah 13, verses 26 and 27; First Kings 11, verse 1.