Matt. 19:4 And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ 5 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’? 6 So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.” (NKJV)
The one man, one woman, life-long marriage covenant, is God designed and good for the individuals who are joined, as well as society as a whole. The Devil naturally hates God, hates whatever God creates and hates anything God loves or calls good.
Since the Devil’s hate for marriage is a given, we can now consider how or in what specific ways does the Devil seek to destroy that which God created, loves and calls good – marriage!
He hates it by denying the existence of God, truth and objective moral standards. To say that there is no God, no objective standard of right or wrong, is a good starting point for the Devil’s attack on marriage. If there is no God and no moral absolutes, then we can’t even claim that good or evil exist as they would simply be up to my own ideas and desires. If something is true for me, right for me, then unless you can stop me from acting by force I am free do as I see fit. The Devil needs to promote a sense of moral outrage against only one category of “evil” - affirming the existence of the Bible revealed God and His absolute moral standard! If Devil can eliminate belief in God and His word we have only what we feel or think is OK to guide behavior – scary!
He hates it by suggesting alternative purposes for marriage and life in general. If the purpose of life generally and marriage specifically is simply to be happy, then we are at the Devil’s disposal. God designed us to love Him and others sacrificially and the Devil promoted lie that life is about making us happy is running 100 MPH in the wrong direction. God’s word says:
Matt. 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. (NKJV)
Gal. 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness (NKJV)
The happiness we seek or anything of true lasting value will never be found by idolatrously seeking the things/feeling we want, but rather are found as we diligently seek God and do things as He directs for our ultimate good. Seeking happiness outside the source of all good things - God, is giving in to a lifelong Devil led journey that makes promises and never delivers in this life and then ends with eternal heartache.
He hates it by promoting discontent. By keeping married people forever asking if this is the right person to be married to, the Devil can assure never ending marital discontent. As long as we avoid the hard work necessary for a good marriage, by asking if we should stay in it, we will never be fully committed or do the hard work which would lead us to seek power from the Lord and find joy in the Lord, even in a less than perfect marriage.
He hates it through pornography. Like the general discontent brought on by a lack of marital commitment, pornography is an effective marriage destroying tool as it brings sexual discontent and encourages infidelity of mind and body. By keeping partial nudity in almost constant view through TV, magazines, billboards and even the scantily clad bodies of some filling our church pews, the Devil can fuel sexual desire for more than what the marriage offers. As if this partial nudity in frequent and often accidental view was not enough, there is instant access to the full range of pornographic activity on the internet. There is no limit to how far one could go online in pursuit of sexual stimulation. If the online only stimulation is all it takes the Devil will be pleased, if more is needed He can provide opportunities to act out these same fantasies in real life, he only needs our willingness and He can orchestrate the rest.
He hates it by redefining what marriage means. The Devil can call marriage an outdated institution, say it is whatever anyone defines it as, say it is only viable if it is making us happy, say it is not necessary or necessarily even good for society and even use endlessly contradictory attacks as long as they all ignore God and His design for marriage. Anything less than marriage as God defined it (a lifelong covenant between one man and one woman) is a victory for the Devil.
He hates it by confusing gender roles. If the Devil can get people to ignore God given gender roles or deny the very reality of differences in gender then he has won a great battle. This strategy promotes good sounding things – equality, self-esteem and being the best you can be. This strategy is easy for the Devil to use as the fall left woman naturally desiring to take leadership over the man and man with a natural inclination to misuse or ignore His God given role of leadership in the home (See Gen. 3). Once gender roles are lost, much of the practical/complementary good marriage was intended to provide becomes seemingly obsolete and two women or two men can divide the roles in the relationship without the need of those of the opposite sex.
He hates it by enlisting experts. Oh how the devil loves ungodly experts. If the Devil can flood TV, books, internet, etc. with unregenerate human experts, who by nature suppress the truth and don’t want God or His standards imposed on them and have them advise, teach and counsel others, he has found a great ally. Experts who claim to be able to help, but don’t see God’s word as the standard of right and wrong, God’s power as necessary for living and God’s glory as the ultimate reason for life and marriage, will never do anything but promote the Devil’s marriage destroying agenda.
He hates it by keeping us too busy to hear the truth. A warning for Christians - the Devil is real, he hates us, he knows our sin nature/weaknesses and he has many tools at his disposal. He will never be the final/eternal ruin of anyone who is truly God’s by grace through faith in Jesus, but with the earthly environment so against us we dare not be too busy with other things to be hearing truth from His word on a regular basis. The Devil is the master of making lies sound just like truth, so we need to be drenched in the truth! We need also to be advocates of God ordained marriage by prayer and speaking God’s truth in a world where the devil seeks only to lie, kill and destroy!
"Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved."
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