Is Your Home A Jesus Home?

God’s Design for Marriage and Family

God blessed them; and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it.

—Genesis 1:28a

In the beginning, God created the world, man, woman, and marriage. His design for marriage and family has always been there from the beginning. We cannot change God’s design. No matter how much we resist God’s word, He will never change.

Genesis 1–2 gives an account of the six days of creation. In the first chapter, God created Adam and Eve on the sixth day, and then God blessed them; and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth’ (Gen. 1:28). But then, Genesis 2 gives a more detailed account of how day 6 was conducted.

Understanding God’s design will help us to understand how the family should be established. This will help us to restore the family to be a Christ-centered home, a Jesus home.

To have a Jesus-based home, individuals considering marriage must be established on God’s word. An example would be a home built with Jesus as the foundation, the first floor being the marriage couple, and the second story would be their children. Jesus must be the foundation with total commitment to Him. If the foundation crumbles, the first and second floor will collapse and the home will be totally destroyed.

The first floor involves the husband and wife. A marriage cannot last without the unity of the husband and wife. The couple will not always agree on every decision, but there must be a final decision maker. This requires commitment to the word of God by the husband loving his wife as Christ loved the church (Eph. 5:22–33). The wife must submit to the authority and leadership of her husband. This does not mean that women are under the authority of all men, but as God established in the beginning for the home, a woman is under the authority of her husband (Gen. 3:16).

If the first floor falls, then the second floor will also fall. Children are to submit to the authority of their parents, as they are taught and learn to understand how order and unity are developed within the home (Eph. 6:1–4). Children must obey both parents, as they learn how to function within the home setting, within society, and in relationship with God and His word. Discipline is love, and it teaches children how to be successful in this life and the one to come. Without these points being understood and established, the home crashes because the foundation is not sound, the first floor is not committed and the home falls apart, and society will be affected in generations to come.

God’s Original Design for Man and Woman

It is important to understand God’s original design, the way He intended it to be. Genesis 2:7–9 and 15–25 show the details of how God created the man and woman:

Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. The Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil… Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. The Lord God commanded the man, saying, From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die. Then the Lord God said, It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him. Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. The man said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

There are many things to learn about marriage just by looking at God’s creation. Here is a list of things that can be learned from this passage.

Man was made from the dust of the ground—God used the dust of the ground to make man’s physical body, but He also made man in His image (Gen. 1:26–27). If we were to study God and mankind, we would find many similarities; however, we would also find many contrasts. God is eternal and man is not. Man is limited and God is not. God was never created, but man was.

God breathed life into man’s nostrils—Although physical bodies are made from the dust of the ground, life is given directly by God. Only God can truly give life.

God planted the Garden of Eden and placed man there—God made the garden and placed man in it. God had created the plants and man to cultivate it. The Garden of Eden was full of life. It had all kinds of plants and animals. It was the perfect place for man to live. He had everything he needed except a mate.

God planted trees in the garden, including the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil—There were only two specific trees mentioned. There were many trees in the garden, but these two had specific meaning and purpose.

God commanded the man not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil—God wanted to give man the choice to obey. If man ate from this tree, then his eyes would be opened to know good and evil. He was innocent, knowing only good until he ate from this tree. At that point, he knew good and evil. Unfortunately, this means he became capable of evil because he disobeyed the one command given to him.

It was not good for man to be alone—God saw that Adam was alone. All the animals had mates, but Adam did not. God saw that it was not good. Adam needed a mate.

Woman was created to be a helper to the man—God created man to cultivate the garden, to rule over the animals, and to eat from the fruits of the garden except from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The woman was made to be a helper. In Hebrew, helper means counterpart. She is his counterpart; she completes him. In the gospel of John, the Holy Spirit was also called the Helper. The term in Greek means to come along beside. The woman is to come along beside the man, to walk with him through life and to be his helper.

Man named the animals—Before God finished the creation of woman, Adam was given the task to name the animals. He saw that animals had their completion (male and female), but he lacked a mate.

Woman was made from the man’s rib—God created the woman from the man’s rib. The term rib can also mean side. It has been told that God created woman from the man’s rib because it comes from his side. The woman was not created from the head to rule over the man nor was she created from his foot to be walked on, but she was created from his rib to be by his side. The area of the ribs is where people feel all emotion and thus Adam felt complete with the woman.

Adam calls her woman—The Hebrew term woman can literally mean she-man. It is because she comes from man. The English term woman comes from womb-man. She was like the man, being the same species, but of a different sex (having a womb).

The man is to leave his father and mother—Obviously, Adam and Eve had no parents. This was God’s beginning design for marriage and family with their children and grandchildren, etc. God formed the home beginning with the marriage of Adam and Eve with the command to pass it on through the generations. Children should leave their parents to be married to their spouse. The relationship between the parents and children are no longer the same as each new family is formed through marriage. They are no longer dependent on their parents but develop independently as a family.

The man is united with his wife; they become one flesh—The husband and wife come together to be united as one flesh. They are no longer two people, but they come together to complete each other and become one unit. The man needs a helper, and the woman needs a man to help and care for her. There is a special bond that exists between a husband and wife.

They were naked and not ashamed—They did not need clothes. The weather was perfect and there was nothing in the garden that they needed protection from. They had not yet sinned, so they had nothing of which to be ashamed because they were innocent.

God made a wonderful creation. He created Adam to take care of it and subdue it. He saw that Adam needed a partner, someone to complete him, so God made a wife for him. This was the first marriage and the beginning of family. Everything was perfect at that time.

The Fall in the Garden of Eden

So why is family not perfect anymore? Because everyone has made mistakes. Everyone has sinned and are prone to sin. Paul states in Romans 3:23, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Family has not been perfect since the fall of man after the marriage that took place in the Garden of Eden. This sinful nature has been passed down to every one of us. Can we stop it? No, we cannot because we are born with this sinful nature. Every one of us chooses to follow into this sinful lifestyle before we even realize it. Sin has caused many problems for everyone, and it will continue until we get to heaven. We can make things right with God,