Jesus taught, "Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’…What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate,” Matthew 19:4-6 (ESV).

The natural flesh desires an intimate, physical relationship. However, the Apostle Paul counsels Christians that, if possible, it is better to remain single as he was. 1 Corinthians 7:1,9 (ESV), “Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: ‘it is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman’… (however) it is better to marry than to burn with passion.” 

Most Christians desire the (heterosexual) bond of marriage. Paul understands this need and he continues his discussion: “But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband…Do not deprive one another,” 1Corinthians 7:2-3, 5 (ESV). 

Paul uses marriage as a beautiful illustration of the relationship between Jesus and His church. Ephesians 5:31-32 (ESV), “…the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.” If marriage were unholy, it would not be an appropriate picture of the holy relationship between Jesus and His bride.

Forbidding marriage between believers is a doctrine of devils. The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry…” 1Timothy 4:1-3 (NIV). 

Finally, Christians should marry other Christians: “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers,” 2 Corinthians 6:14. When a Christian man and Christian women seek the Lord’s will and believe the Lord is blessing their romantic relationship, their married life, serving God together, can be a blessed union.