What are covenants?<\/a>” for more information.) Much of our traditional wedding ceremonies revolve around the establishment of a covenant. The exchanging of the vows is a declaration of the stipulations of the covenant. The rings are the witness to the covenant. The reception dinner echoes the fellowship meal between agreeing parties. But most of all, a covenant is a vow before God.<\/p>\nThus, King Lemuel records that his mother spoke to him as, “What, my son? And what, son of my womb? And what, son of my vows?<\/em>” (Proverbs 31:2). Lemuel was her son, the product of her womb, the result of her wedding vows.<\/p>\n“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.”<\/em>” (Matthew 19:4-6). Even though we regulate marriages through civil laws and civil ceremonies, the actual marriage bond is controlled by the Almighty. It doesn’t matter whether those marrying are Christians or not (see\u00a0I Corinthians 7:12-14), God regulates marriage and people will be judged by their obedience to His laws.<\/p>\nThus, the idea that man can alter the definition of marriage is laughable. God established it as a covenant union between a man and a woman. The definition is fixed and unalterable.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: What is marriage to start with? It cannot be what it is today — a man-made ceremony. Answer: “Yet you say, “For what reason?” Because the LORD has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, with whom you have dealt treacherously; yet she is your companion and your wife by covenant.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[489,64,566],"class_list":["post-3299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-covenants","tag-marriage","tag-weddings"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8428,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-are-the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-a-broken-marriage\/","url_meta":{"origin":3299,"position":0},"title":"What are the advantages and disadvantages of a broken marriage?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 11, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What are the advantages of broken marriages? What are the disadvantages of broken marriages? Answer: \"And this is the second thing you do: You cover the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping and crying; so He does not regard the offering anymore, nor receive it with goodwill\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":70216,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-cohabitation-create-a-marriage\/","url_meta":{"origin":3299,"position":1},"title":"Does cohabitation create a marriage?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 8, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Does cohabitation with sex make a marriage? A lot of Christians think so. They say that when you go live with someone and have sex, that's a marriage according to the Bible because, in the Old Testament, that's how marriages were made.\u00a0They give the case of Isaac and Rebecca.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16475,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-there-a-passage-that-says-to-marry-a-partner-of-your-youth\/","url_meta":{"origin":3299,"position":2},"title":"Is there a passage that says to marry a partner of your youth?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 22, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is there a scripture in the Bible that says you should marry a partner of your youth? Answer: No, but there are passages which state acknowledge that most people marry when they are relatively young. \"Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of your youth\" (Proverbs\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20146,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/weve-been-living-together-for-five-years-and-dont-need-a-paper-to-prove-our-love-but-i-want-to-make-it-right-with-god-what-should-i-do\/","url_meta":{"origin":3299,"position":3},"title":"We’ve been living together for five years and don’t need a paper to prove our love, but I want to make it right with God. What should I do?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 12, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My boyfriend and I have been together for almost 7 years. We have lived together for 5. We are not ready for marriage. He and I think we don't need a piece of paper to prove our love, but I want to make it right with God. Is there\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45386,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-biblical-definition-of-marriage\/","url_meta":{"origin":3299,"position":4},"title":"What is the biblical definition of marriage?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 28, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What is the biblical definition of marriage according to both the Old and New Testaments? Answer: Marriage is a special covenant entered into between a man and a woman for the purpose of establishing a new family. \"For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21609,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-couple-get-married-by-simply-taking-a-personal-vow-between-them-and-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":3299,"position":5},"title":"Can a couple get married by simply taking a personal vow between them and God?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question about marriage: Is it biblical for a man and woman to get married simply by taking a personal vow between them and God, or must it be done legally? Answer: What creates a marriage is a covenant. \"Yet she is your companion and your wife\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3299\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}