What we believe and teach - Marriage - |
God took one
of the man’s ribs and made a woman from it and brought her to the man and He
said: “A man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and
they will become one flesh”. Therefore marriage was established by God. |
A
Christian man must marry a Christian woman and not an unbelieving woman
because we are not allowed to be yoked together with unbelievers: light has
no communion with darkness. |
The
husband must love his wife just as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself
for her, that He might sanctify her and present her to Himself a glorious
Church, a holy and blameless Church. The husband must dwell with his wife
with understanding, giving honor to his wife as to the weaker vessel, that
his prayers may not be hindered. The wife must submit to her own husband in
everything, just as the Church submits to Christ, and she must respect her
husband; so she is not permitted to have authority over her husband. |
Husband
and wife must procreate and they must be willing to accept from the hand of God
all the children God has decided to give to them; so they must not hinder
conception. The fruit of the womb is a reward. Abortion is a murder,
therefore we reject it. We are against medically assisted procreation, for it
is an unnatural procreation. |
Children
must be brought up in the training and admonition of the Lord,
they must not be provoked to wrath, lest they become discouraged. Children
must obey their parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to God. |
Husband
and wife are bound by the law to one another as long as both of them are alive, therefore the bond of matrimony is dissolved only
by the death of one of them. If the wife commits fornication, the husband can
put away his wife but he can’t remarry. Whoever puts away his wife and marries
another woman, commits adultery. (If a believing husband is left by his
unbelieving wife for she is no more willing to live with him, and he marries
another woman, he commits adultery). If, while her husband lives, the woman
marries another man, she commits adultery. If divorce and remarriage took
place before conversion, then the two must remain with God in that state in
which they were called. One who divorced and remarried before his conversion
cannot become a pastor, nor an elder and nor a deacon. |
Widows and
widowers are free to marry. A widow should be put on the list of widows if
she is over sixty, if she has been the wife of one man, well reported for
good works, if she has brought up children, if she has lodged strangers, if
she has washed the saints’ feet, if she has relieved the afflicted, if she has
diligently followed every good work. |
Marriage
should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge
fornicators and adulterers. |
A man can
remain unmarried if he has this gift from the Lord. But if he has not
received this gift, let him marry because it is better to marry than to burn
with passion. Celibacy must not be imposed on anyone; it must be a free
choice. He who gives his daughter in marriage does right, but he who does not
give her in marriage does even better. Anyone who forbids people to marry
teaches a doctrine of demons. |