And the LORD God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him” (Genesis 2:18).
In Genesis 1, it says that God is surveying His whole creation, and He sees that everything is good, with one exception—the loneliness of man. So God says, I’m going to make him a helper comparable to him. This is at the top of His list.
The First Purpose of Marriage
Therefore, the first purpose of marriage is companionship. Man needs somebody to go through life alongside of him. God desires that we have, what you might call, a soul mate—somebody to share with emotionally; someone to share the deep and wonderful experiences and feelings of life; someone with whom we have mental stimulation through conversation, knowledge, all of those things. This is companionship.
I am so thankful that God brought me a helper, somebody comparable to me, to balance and compliment me, somebody to make up for the deficiencies in my life. That’s exactly what my wife has done. I marvel at that. People say that opposites attract. And in my case that is absolutely true. My wife, Cheryl, and I are so opposite from each other, but we balance one another out. We’re a good blend. When you put us together, we are a whole person. But you pull us apart and we are dysfunctional. When I think of all of the things that Cheryl does that are complimentary, I’m so thankful. She has made my life more well rounded, and quite honestly, just better. When she is away, I notice just how dysfunctional I am.
The Purpose of Blessing Us
I emphasize this particular purpose of companionship because, historically, people have missed this. There have been periods of time and groups of people, even within the context of Christianity, who have wrongly concluded that marriage is nothing more than simply the continuation of the family. The love component, the enjoyment component, the companionship component was not even considered. Procreation is definitely one of the purposes of marriage, and we will consider that aspect next week. But God’s intention for marriage is companionship. Marriage originated with Him, and He invented it for the purpose of blessing us.