The Lord God is all-wise, so He knows what is best for humanity. Because God loves us, He wants what is best for us. God communicates with us via His word, and in that word He has revealed what is best for our lives, including matters pertaining to the home.

God brought down His hammer of judgment on the ancient Assyrian Empire. One of the reasons was the haughtiness of its king, who boasted, “By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I am prudent . . .” (Isaiah 10:12,13). The ancient king’s attitude is seen in many scenarios today, including how some people approach God’s arrangement for marriage and the family. Like Assyria’s king, such folks think they are mighty and wise and prudent, so they choose to do things their own way and disregard what God has to say.

When people tamper with and cast aside what God says He desires for the home, disaster follows. Nations suffer when God’s plan for the home is disregarded. Families suffer when God’s will for the family is ignored. God’s church suffers when His children choose to fulfill their own fleshly desires rather than submit to His instructions. And, yes, the world, the nation, the home, and the church all suffer when teachers and preachers spread messages about the home which contradict what God says.

God is the one who instituted the home. He created Adam and Eve and brought them together as husband and wife (Genesis 2). As the Creator of the universe, it is His right to speak to humanity in language that commands us how to act. Yes, He has every right to expect each one of us to comply with His will, including what He says about the home.

Bed relations outside of marriage violate God’s will for the family. It is God’s will that only two people who are married lawfully before Him have the right to sleep with one another. For a husband and his wife, their bed is undefiled (Hebrews 13:4). When people practice or endorse bed relations outside of a genuine marriage, they are disregarding God’s arrangement for the home.

When people divorce for any flimsy reason, or when others encourage such action, they are tampering with God’s arrangement for the home. The Spirit’s instruction to married saints is, “. . . A wife is not to depart from her husband . . . And a husband is not to divorce his wife . . .” (1 Corinthians 7:10,11). If a man divorces his wife, unless he does so because she has committed fornication, if he then marries a second woman, the relationship between him and that second female is adultery. Jesus said so (Matthew 19:9). The Lord of lords also said this about the marriage bond: “Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate” (Matthew 19:6).

Same-gender relationships — homosexuality, lesbianism, and two people of the same gender “married” to one another, all of these are a violation of God’s plan for the home. The message of Matthew 19 is crystal clear: per God’s plan, marriage is for “male and female” (19:4), for those who leave “father and mother” (who are male and female, 19:5), and for a “man . . . joined to his wife” (a male and a female, 19:6). Marriage and bed privileges are for husbands and wives (Ephesians 5:22-25), not man with man or woman with woman. Those who engage in same-gender relations are counted as “unrighteous” by the Lord and cannot inherit His kingdom (1 Corinthians 6:9,10). God does not hate such people, nor do we. God being our Helper, though, we will not give our voice to support same-gender relations, nor will we sit by with a tolerant heart and locked lips.

Women giving birth to a child, having conceived with the aid of an implanted “donation” from a male who is not her husband, is tampering with the Lord’s plan for the home. God’s plan is for a wife to conceive from her relations with her husband and no other way. God’s arrangement for human procreation is through the activity of a husband and his own wife, period.

When a husband and his wife agree to be co- heads of the family, they are tampering with God’s plan for the home. By God’s decree, the husband is head of the wife (Ephesians 5:23). He is not allowed to share that headship, and she is not allowed to snatch it from him or jointly possess it.

Regardless of what topic is under consideration, God’s arrangement is always best. May we have a heart that wants to learn, live, and teach His will.

— Roger D. Campbell