True Beauty is from the Inside Out

There is an obsession in people; or most people's inmost thoughts and innermost feelings are dominated with a persistent idea, image and desire to look beautiful, handsome and feeling healthy. That's why the cosmetics, drugs, health foods industries are multimillion dollar businesses. Joining the beauty craze is the exercise equipment manufacturers which produce all kinds of machines that claim and guarantee users of "Adonis-like" and "Aphrodite-like" physique that wooed and envied by everybody.

I guess there is nothing wrong per see to take care of our bodies being the temple of God's Spirit.  But it is wrong to be preoccupied even to the point of becoming too obsessed about how you look on the outside.

Beauty Products

If you happened to be at a supermarket, or a drug store, or at a department store; look at the shelves displaying all kinds of beauty products. They come in all sorts of sizes, kinds, brand-names, and colors. They come as perfumes, lotions, facial cremes, face powders, body wash, bathe soap, mouthwash, nail polish, lipsticks, etc.

Look further on the shelves of health care stores where you can see dizzying array of health foods and veritable food multivitamins from slimming pills to herbal products to make you look beautiful and young, and feels healthy. On top of these, fashion designers and manufacturers of clothing apparels and jewelries made of pearls, diamonds, silver, gold and various precious stones and metals add theirs to the whole spectrum and gamut of beauty and health products.

Men and women in the movie, entertainment, show business, and advertising world precede and spearhead the users of these arrays of beauty and health products. If you happened to take a look on the magazine racks of the stores, practically all magazines' cover display models of either (or both)  an "Apollo-looking" man or a "Venus-looking" woman.

Almost all of commercial advertising whether an advertisement of an automobile, motorcycle, refrigerator, LED TV, watches, clothes, bathe soap, toothpaste, SLR and digital cameras, laptop computer, and you name it ad infinitum; contain also a gorgeous picture of a model usually a beautiful and voluptuous woman scantily and provocatively dressed and/or a macho-looking well-built man. Sometimes consumers don't focus on the products being advertised but the pictures of men and women grabbed first their attention and interest. An article accompanying a photo like below, says a whole lot: "Women in motorcycle advertising have been around forever, they will continue to be, sex sells now as much as ever."  Sex is part of advertising gimmick to make a product sale-able.

Marissa Miller posing on top of a Harley Davidson motorcycle

An article appeared in a woman's magazine, and I quote portions of it: "We women adore fashion and style. Fashion comes in clothes, shoes, makeup, fancy accessories, styles the way we carry things and hairstyles. We enjoy dressing up, getting ready and styling our hair. Hair is the part of fashion and beauty and Hair-styling is an art."

That is to demonstrate man's instinct and insatiable hunger to live forever young, retaining their youthful strength and beauty.  That's why this mad quest for the legendary Fountain of Youth, that reputedly restores the youth of anyone who drinks of its waters, continues on relentlessly since the days of Juan Ponce De Leon, the Spanish explorer. The legend story narrated that Ponce De Leon was searching for the fountain of youth when he traveled to what is now Florida in 1513. Since, then, the fountain has been frequently associated with Florida.

Rainbow Springs, formerly known as Blue Spring, is a first-magnitude artesian spring formation in Marion County, Florida, USA, several miles north of the city of Dunnellon, Florida. Rainbow Springs is the focal point of Rainbow Springs State Park. The spring formation is the fourth-largest in Florida, and produces over 490 million gallons of water daily. Rainbow Springs forms the headwaters of the Rainbow River, which empties into the Withlacoochee River. (From Wikipedia)

Rainbow River

Could it be that the Rainbow Springs was the fountain of youth Ponce De Leon was searching for and found in Florida?

However, man's quest for the fountain of youth, it's like the endless search for the elusive pot of gold at end of the rainbow; or like the mad craze in search of the hidden treasure of Yamashita, the emperor of Japan during World War II, is proven to be abysmally futile. God said through Jeremiah, one of his Old Testament prophets:  "Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the LORD, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water." (Jer. 2:12, 13)  The Fountain of Youth that makes one forever young, beautiful and strong and healthy is no other than but God himself.  But most people at all times in countless ways has forsaken God and don't want to seek after Him. (Psa. 53:2, Rom. 3:11)

Pot of Gold at the end of a Rainbow

In the first book of Moses, the book of origins (Genesis), it related the account of creation. Genesis chapter 1 and verse 31 says: "And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day."  Notice that on the sixth day, the day man was created, the phrase "it was very good" only appeared here. The preceding days of creation, all that God made, they were only "good." This is to show that the creation of man being the apex and the masterpiece of God's creation, caps everything he had made as "very good."

There is poem made into a hymn that children sing which goes this way:

All things bright and beautiful,

All creatures great and small,

All things wise and wonderful,

The Lord God made them all.

The implication here is originally God made man very good, very good looking, very healthy and very beautiful. But sin marred, defaced, disfigured, deformed and destroyed this beautiful masterpiece of God's creation, man, which was created in his image. The physical and mental deformities of man are primarily the result of sin. Sin has affected the genes and cells of man's body that's why there are children born with defects and deformities and abnormalities.

Birth Defects

In Rom 5:12, the apostle Paul wrote "Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned." Sin destroyed everything beautiful about the man, including his estimation and perception about himself. The Fall distorted and warped his thinking. That ugly spirit of rebellion had caused dissatisfaction and discontentment of about how he looks. That attitude had spawned and given rise to question God: "But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, "Why have you made me like this?" (Rom 9:20)  Here the apostle is quoting the words of Isaiah in Isa 45:9  "Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, 'What are you making?' or 'Your work has no handles'?  

That's why some peoples of different races like any of the traditional divisions of humankind, the commonest being the Caucasian, Mongoloid, and Negro, characterized by supposedly distinctive and universal physical characteristics as skin color, facial form, or eye shape, or nose shape, etc. sometimes they don't like the way God made them.

It's no wonder men and women turned to all kinds of technological marvels to somewhat alter, or change, or improve their God given characteristics.  They resorted to all kinds of remedies and cures  for the ailments of discontentment and dissatisfaction about their looks and make-ups. They turned to cosmetics, surgery, breast-lifts, face-lifts or nose-lifts, whitening lotions to make the skin looks fairer, expose their white skin to have sun-tan, slimming gadgets, costly apparels, fancy and real jewelries etcetera to make themselves look beautiful and feeling healthy. As I said, they are too obsessed and preoccupied to outwardly adorn themselves with all kinds of adornment to camouflage the ugliness of their hearts because of sin.

The apostle Peter admonished Christian women and wives: "Do not let your adorning be external--the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear--but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening." (1Pe 3:3-6).

Beautiful Flowers, Lake and Mountains

"The apostle does not condemn true ornament, nor does he condemn the desire to appear in such a way as to secure the esteem of others. God does not condemn real ornament. The universe is full of it. The colors of the clouds and of the rainbow; the varied hues of flowers; the plumage of birds, and the covering of many of the animals of the forest; the green grass; the variety of hill and dale; the beauty of the human complexion, the ruddy cheek, and the sparkling eye, are all of the nature of ornament...The true notion of ornament or adorning is that which will make any person or thing appear well, or beautiful, to others; and the apostle does not prohibit that which would have this effect in the wife. The grand thing which she was to seek, was not that which is merely external, but that which is internal, and which God regards as of so great value...Let not this be the main or principal thing; let not her heart be set on this. The apostle does not say that she should wholly neglect her personal appearance, for she has no more right to be offensive to her husband by neglecting her personal appearance, than by a finical attention to it. Religion promotes neatness, and cleanliness, and a proper attention to our external appearance according to our circumstances in life, as certainly as it does to the internal virtue of the soul."  (From Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible)

In other words, Peter is warning women against too much preoccupation with the external adornment instead of the internal.  He goes on to show the examples of holy women like Sarah the wife of Abraham on how they adorned themselves. A Christian woman with unsaved husband is to adorn herself in a certain way in order to captivate and win him to Christ, that is a life live in obedience, reverence and purity expressed in submissive attitude that honors her husband as the head of the house; coupled with a meek and gentle and quiet spirit has far more impact upon her unsaved husband to motivate him to embrace true religion.

Matthew Henry's Commentary of the Whole Bible also has commented about these verses from 1 Peter 3:3-6: "The ornaments of the body are destroyed by the moth, and perish in the using; but the grace of God, the longer we wear it, the brighter and better it is. More especially, the finest ornament of Christian women is a meek and quiet spirit, a tractable easy temper of mind, void of passion, pride, and immoderate anger, discovering itself in a quiet obliging behavior towards their husbands and families. If the husband be harsh, and averse to religion (which was the case of these good wives to whom the apostle gives this direction), there is no way so likely to win him as a prudent meek behavior. At least, a quiet spirit will make a good woman easy to herself, which, being visible to others, becomes an amiable ornament to a person in the eyes of the world."

Zhang Ziyi, a Chinese film actress. the 24th of the 50 Most Beautiful Female Celebrities

Part of the lesson which Lemuel's mother (Lemuel was the name Bathsheba, his mother fondly called Solomon when he was still young) taught him was that "Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised."  (Prov 31:30).  She was admonishing him that he should not gauge a virtuous woman by her charming beauty, by her attractive looks, by her charismatic personality, by her well favored look, by her graceful countenance, by the symmetry and well-proportioned body parts. These qualities are not the determining factor  that classify a virtuous woman, but a woman who fear the Lord. That is the true gauge determinative of a virtuous woman.

A certain author wrote: "Beauty is only skin deep."  If you were born with a beautiful face and a well-proportioned figure, thank and praise God for them. But remember they are but temporary and transitory; they are just passing phenomenon.  Over time your beautiful face and well-proportioned body will soon fade and consumed away, or will be ravaged by an illness or a dreadful disease like cancer, and peter away through old age; and vanish lastly by death.

"A fit of sickness will stain and sully (or tarnish) it in a little time; a thousand accidents may blast this flower in its prime; old age will certainly wither it and death and the grave consume it. But the fear of God reigning in the heart is the beauty of the soul; it recommends those that have it to the favor of God, and is, in his sight, of great price; it will last for ever, and bid defiance to death itself, which consumes the beauty of the body, but consummates the beauty of the soul." (From Matthew Henry's Commentary on Proverbs 31:30)

I want to conclude and leave you with these words: “The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair. The beauty of a woman is seen in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides. True beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It's the caring that she lovingly gives, the passion that she shows & the beauty of a woman only grows with passing years.” ― Audrey Hepburn

Audrey Hepburn (born Audrey Kathleen Ruston; (4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress and humanitarian. Although modest about her acting ability, Hepburn remains one of the world's most famous actresses of all time, remembered as a film and fashion icon of the twentieth century. Born in Ixelles, a district of Brussels, Hepburn spent her childhood between Belgium, England and the Netherlands, including German-occupied Arnhem during the Second World War. Her war-time struggles inspired her passion for humanitarian work and, although Hepburn had contributed to the organisation since the 1950s, she worked in some of the most profoundly disadvantaged communities of Africa, South America and Asia in the late eighties and early nineties. In 1992, Hepburn was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of her work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador but died of appendiceal cancer at her home in Switzerland, aged 63, in 1993. (Source: Wiki)

             

  

The Reason why I titled my blog “We are our Brother’s Keeper!”

By Jeremiah D. Ortiguero

Perhaps some of you who read the two articles I published in my blog, you are wondering about the rationale of the title “We are our Brother’s Keeper. 

Cain striking and killing Abel

Of course the phrase was taken from Genesis 4:9. You all know very well the story about Cain and Abel.  Cain had killed his brother Abel because God accepted Abel’s offering, but not his own. When the Lord inquired concerning Abel, Cain’s response was rudely and impudently spoken “Am I my brother’s keeper?” There is, as usual, an atom of truth mingled with the amazing falsehood of this surly response. No man is the absolute keeper of his brother, so as to be responsible for his safety when he is not present. This is what Cain means to insinuate. But every man is his brother’s keeper.  We have a responsibility to watch out and care for one another.

All humans are interrelated with each other for we all originally came from Adam and Eve, the first parents. And more specifically we are the descendants of Noah’s sons--Shem, Ham and Japhet. All peoples on earth, past present and future, are all the offspring’s either of Shem, Ham, and Japhet. Therefore whatever race and nationality a person belongs to he or she is our brother and sisters respectively.

Paul’s said to the men of Athens, Greece as recorded by Luke in Act 17:24:“The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth… 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place.”

The King James Version rendered verse 26 this way: “And hath 

made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face 

of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and 

the bounds of their habitation.” 

Sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, Japhet

Barnes Commentary of the Whole Bible has this to say:  “All the families of mankind are descended from one origin or stock. However different their complexion, features, or language, yet they are derived from a common parent. The word blood is often used to denote “race, stock, kindred.” This passage affirms that all the human family are descended from the same ancestor; and that, consequently, all the variety of complexion, etc., is to be traced to some other cause than that they were originally different races created. The design of the apostle in this affirmation was probably to convince the Greeks that he regarded them all as brethren; that, although he was a Jew, yet he was not enslaved to any narrow notions or prejudices in reference to other people. It follows from the truth here stated that no one nation, and no individual, can claim any pre-eminence over others in virtue of birth or blood. All are in this respect equal; and the whole human family, however they may differ in complexion, customs, and laws, are to be regarded and treated as brethren.”

You can check The Table of Nations (GENEALOGY OF MANKIND) AND THE ORIGIN OF RACES (HISTORY OF MAN) at http://www.soundchristian.com/man/.  Interestingly, we Filipinos are the descendants of Canaan, Ham’s fourth born son. So as “the Mongols, Asians, Orientals, Chinese, Tibetans, Taiwanese, Thais, Vietnamese, Laotians, Cambodians, Japanese, Eskimos, American Indians, Malaysians, Indonesians, Hawaiians, Maoris, Polynesians, Tahitians, Guamanians, Samoans, Fijians, Tongans, Tokelauans, Tuvaluans, Pacific Islanders and related groups.”

A woman from Hill Tribes of Thailand

Furthermore the research states that “Genesis 10:15-19 identifies a distinctive characteristic of the sons of Canaan:  They liked to spread out.  The Canaanites are specifically mentioned as migrating far and wide, ‘...and afterward the families of the Canaanites were spread abroad’…Looking at history, whichever region is considered, Africa, Europe, Australia, or America, the major migrations have always been from Asia.”

It’s no wonder these Asian people are scattered throughout all corners of the globe--from the North Pole to the South Pole; from the East to the West; from North to the South.  For example here in the United Arab Emirates with its seven emirates there are lots of people who migrated here from the countries comprising the Asia-Pacific region, which are Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.

Tsunami caused by Japan's earthquake

The Associated Press reported that this year 42 million people are expected to migrate from these countries to different parts of this globe. This mass migration spawned by wide array of factors i.e. poverty, social and civil unrest.  But the major driver why people flee from their home countries is because of environmental and climate changes brought about by natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis, tropical cyclones and greater monsoon rains. These exacerbate significant temperature increases, rising sea levels, soil degradation, and seasonal flooding.  In 2010, more than 10 million Pakistanis were displaced by monsoon rains and flooding along the Indus River basin, and last year (2011), a typhoon ravage the southern Philippines, displacing more than 300,000 people. 

The Apostle Paul in Colossians 3:11 says “there is not Greek and 

Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised,barbarian, Scythian, slave, 

free; but Christ is all, and in all.”

The meaning here is, that all are on a level; that there is no 

distinction of nation in the church; that whatever was the birth, or 

pedigree, or race or nation, or color, or complexion that all are to 

be regarded and treated as brethren.

The bottom line of all that I am saying is all people on earth are our 

brethren.  And that we lay aside all racial discrimination and 

bigotry because we have the same Father who created all (Mal. 

2:10).

In this context I entitled my blog “We are our Brother’s 

Keeper.” As such we have responsibility to watch out for and care 

for one another as people created by God. 

I want to show you from the teachings of Jesus and the apostles affirming this is so; that each one of us is indeed our Brother’s Keeper. 

On the night of the Passover where Jesus and his twelve apostles 

having the last supper, Jesus made his “farewell message” some 

sort like Jose Rizal’s “Mi Ultimo Adios” or his farewell message

before he was executed.  Jesus said in John 13:34, 35  “A new 

commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I 

have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all 

people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for 

one another.”

Paul taught the Christians in Rome: “Owe no one anything, except 

to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the 

law.” (Rom 13:8); and the Christians at Thessalonica  “Now

concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to 

you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one 

another.” (1 Thes. 4:9); Peter instructed us in 1 Pet. 1:22  “Having 

purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere 

brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart.” The 

apostle John stressed “For this is the message that you have heard 

from the beginning, that we should love one another.” (1 John 

3:11) and in 2 John 5 “And now I ask you, dear lady--not as

though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we 

have had from the beginning--that we love one another.”

In fact there are about 66 “one another” passages that stemmed 

from this commandment of “love one another.” 

From this overarching commandment of love we are to demonstrate 

and express love for one another: 

we are  to “welcome one another" (Rom.15:7); 

we are to “edify another” (Rom. 14:19); 

we are to “serve one another” (Gal. 5:13); 

we are to “bear one another's burdens” (Gal. 6:1-2); 

we are to be “forgiving one another” (Eph. 4:32); 

we are to be “submitting to one another” (Eph. 5:21); 

we are to exhort one another” (Heb. 3:12-13); 

we are to “consider one another” (Heb. 10:24-25) 

we are to be “hospitable to one another” (1 Peter 4:8-10).

Therefore, in the light of such “one another” passages, there is no 

doubt that we are to be our Brother’s keeper. There is no question 

that we ought to fulfill and live up to our responsibility to be

our Brother’s keeper.

To conclude, I want to share with you quotations on brotherhood of 

all men.

“We live in a world that has narrowed into a neighborhood before 

it has broadened into a brotherhood.”

Lyndon B. Johnson

(1908-1973, American President (36th)

“Until you have become a brother to everyone, brotherhood will

not come to pass.”

Fyodor Dostoevsky

(1821-1881, Russian novelist)

“Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of 

segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to 

lift our nation from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid 

rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality to 

all of God's children. We must learn to live together as brothers 

or perish together as fools.”

Martin Luther King Jr.

(1929-1968, American Civil Rights leader, Nobel Prize winner, 1964)

God’s Purpose for Marriage

Newly Married Pakistani Couple

I want to introduce this subject by quoting Pastor Gicky Soriano’s article on “Understanding God's Blueprint for Marriage.” “Marriage is a divine institution, ordained and regulated by God’s word. It is found in every human culture. God formed humanity as male and female with the intent that a man leave his father and mother to cling and commit to a permanent union with one woman (Gen 2:24). It is the first institution established and elevated to the most intimate of relationships by God and the only one founded before the Fall. Many people throughout the ages have questioned, rebelled against or attempted to change the shape of this ideal covenant forged by God. Rooted in a divine origin, marriage is an institution that is not subject to the human electoral process, political correctness or even the cultural trends that influence the tide of traditional or liberal thinking today. When some Pharisees confronted Jesus about grounds for divorce, his response affirmed God’s original and perfect blueprint for marriage—the Creation ideal (Mt 19:1-6).” (About Pastor Gicky Soriano go to http://hubpages.com/)

We see several things of import stand out in this article: 1) Marriage is a divine institution, ordained and regulated by God’s word. Marriage is not a human institution devised in the dim past of human history as a convenient way to sort out social responsibilities. 2) Marriage is found only in every human culture. You and I never heard of marriage in the animal kingdom, nor in the colonies of ants and other creeping things, nor in the fowls of the air, nor in the creatures of the sea. These creatures including mankind are able to produce and reproduce their own kind but only humans have the benefit of marriage. The marriage institution is only intended for human kind. 3) It is the first institution established and elevated to the most intimate of relationships by God and the only one founded before the Fall. This most intimate of relationship of marriage is only between a man and woman and not between the same sexes.

Why is that so? What are the purposes God intended for the institution and ordination of marriage? From the book of Genesis and from the epistles of Paul we can learn the five basic purposes God intended for establishing and ordaining the marriage institution. 

1.   Marriage is for Procreation

Genesis 1:28  And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth… 

I have heard a story about a parish priest who complained to a U.S. Army General about the behavior of some GI soldiers during the liberation of the Philippines from  the Japanese Imperial Army. Apparently, the GI soldiers made several Filipina women pregnant in his parish. To which the General answered the priest, “Father, did not God say? ‘Go, be fruitful and multiply!” To which the priest rebutted “True General, God said ‘be fruitful and multiply’, but he never said ‘be fruitful and multiply and then Go!’ Apparently the American soldiers  must leave the Philippines after completing their tour of duty leaving all behind; and making these single women single moms and the children whom they sired fatherless.

So God’s purpose and intent for marriage is procreation, to continue propagating the human race. But mind you, the procreation or the proliferation of the human race is done only in the bounds of marriage. God said in Genesis 2:24 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”  Children born outside marriage; they are called and considered illegitimate children because they are born of parents who are not married to each other; born out of wedlock. Therefore, cohabitation, live-in partnership, trial-marriages, divorce and remarriage, and concubinages are unlawful in the sight of God. Though some human societies and customs practice concubinages and maintain harems wherein women are kept for sexual pleasures of sheiks and kings; and have enacted laws for granting divorce and favor remarriage, nevertheless the law of God governing marriage transcends over these customs. 

2. Marriage is for Partnership

Gen 2:18 Later, the LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make for him a companion that is a suitable match for him."  

When God said in creating man “let us make man in our image” it implies that the triune God is a relational being; simply enjoying a “perichoretic” relationship with each other. The familial terms that describe God as Father, as Son, and as Holy Spirit are anthromorphic (human like) descriptions of Him so that we can know Him better. And one of the images of God in man is the capacity to live in the context of human relationships as man is formed to be a social being.  It is inert in human beings to live socially in communion and companionship with other human beings. The worst of punishment perhaps is to be banished to an isolated island alone with no other beings to socialize with. So in marriage God designed that the first couple should live in partnership living out in social affection. This affection was the index of social capacity. The first step towards social affection is communication between the kindred spirits of Adam and Eve.

God designed woman to be man’s suitable helper, or literally, "a helper agreeing to him." Eve was created to be Adam’s other half approximating him in every point and making the marriage union a complete whole. She was not created to be man’s slave, but rather his helper. The word "helper" (’ezer) is used in the Bible also for God as the helper of the needy (Ps 33:20; 146:5), thus it does not imply that woman is an inferior being. She is equal in nature and worth, reflecting the same divine image (Gen 1:27). Yet she is different in function, serving as a supportive helper.

Woman was created to be man’s counterpart, agreeing with him mentally, physically and spiritually, making him a larger person than he would have been alone, bringing into his life a new feminine perspective he would not have known otherwise. The same holds true for man. He brings to his wife a masculine perspective that enlarges her life, making her a more complete person than she could be without him. Thus, a marriage union not only fills the need for companionship, but it enables a man and a woman to become fuller, more complete persons. 

The way God chose to create the first bride is most significant. Unlike the rest of creation and of man himself, God formed Eve not from "the dust of the ground" (Gen 2:7) but from the very man who was to become her husband, by utilizing one of his ribs (Gen 2: 21). The significance of the manner of Eve’s creation, though not explicitly expressed, can hardly be missed. Eve was not made out of Adam’s head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be his equal, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be loved.

As Adam beheld with sleepy eyes the most beautiful creature of God’s creation, he declared with ecstatic excitement: "Wow wakatan binigyan ako ng Dyios ng pinamagandang hayop sa ibabaw ang mundo."  "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man" (Gen 2:23). Adam’s rejoicing was motivated by the discovery of the person who completed his incompleteness. His hunger for wholeness stemmed from the fact that God made him a male with the need for a female companion. God made Adam incomplete without Eve from the beginning.

The manner in which God created Adam and Eve reveals God’s design that there should be male and female. Each of them needs the other for self-fulfillment. Each of them should accept his or her sexual and functional roles as given by God. This means that efforts to promote sexual or functional role interchangeability between men and women represent a violation of the role distinctions established by God at creation. True completeness and self-realization can be found not by transcending our sexual or functional roles but rather by fulfilling our different and yet complementary roles.

So in marriage God intended that man and woman should live in partnership relationship. It is 100% partnership with each other and not only 50% partnership. The woman is intended by God is a “helpmeet” that is one to help him in all the affairs of life; the one who may not only reciprocate his feelings, but take an intelligent and appropriate part in his active pursuits.

Apparently the personal experiences of Solomon attest to the fact that marriage as a partnership is beneficial and it has advantages. Ecc. 4:9  Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. 11 Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? 12  And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him--a threefold cord is not quickly broken. 

3.   Marriage is for Pleasure

Genesis 2:24 (KJV) Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

Other translations render “leave and cleave” as “leave and be united” (NIV), “leave and be joined” (NASB), and “leave and hold fast” (ESV).

As recorded in Genesis chapter 2, God created Adam first, and then Eve. God Himself brought Eve to Adam. God Himself ordained that they would be joined together in holy matrimony. He said that the two of them would become one flesh. This is a picture of marital intimacy—the act of love that is never to involve anyone else. To “cleave” or “hold fast” means “to adhere to, stick to, or join with.” It is a unique joining of two people into one entity.

The phrase "one flesh" needs some explanation because it is frequently misunderstood to refer primarily to the sexual union. The phrase is closely parallel to our English compound word everybody. When we speak of everybody we do not think of bodies only. Rather, we mean every person. Or when God speaks of destroying all flesh (Gen 6:17; 7:21), obviously He does not mean all the flesh without the bones, but every person. Similarly, to become "one flesh" (Gen 2:24) means to become one functioning unit. H. C. Leupold explains that becoming one flesh "involves the complete identification of one personality with the other in a community of interests and pursuits, a union consummated in intercourse."5  

The phrase "one flesh" does also refer to the physical or sexual aspect of marriage. Paul explicitly uses the phrase in this way when speaking of sexual intercourse between a man and a harlot (1 Cor 6:16). Sexual intercourse per se, however, does not automatically assure that a man and a woman become one in a mystical, emotional, and spiritual unity. Genital intercourse without spiritual communion often leaves people divided, alienated, and bitter toward each other. Thus, sexual intercourse itself does not bring about real oneness.

To achieve the Biblical "one flesh" union, sexual intercourse in marriage must be the natural fruit of love, the crowning act of marital union. If sex is not the expression of genuine love, respect, and commitment, then it offers only a physical contact while keeping the partners mentally and spiritually apart. Sexual desire must become the desire for the total union and oneness of body, soul, and spirit between marital partners.

Truly, there is delightful pleasure and pure ecstasy in the sex act of copulation between a man and woman, that’s why men sought to satisfy sexual desires at all costs in marriage or even outside of marriage. And men and women if only to gratify sexual desire indulge to all sorts of activities like masturbation, adultery, sodomy, and even zoophilia (Zoophilia, from the Greek ζῷον (zṓion, "animal") and φιλία (philia, "friendship" or "love") is the practice of sexual activity between humans and non-human animals (bestiality), or a preference for or fixation on such practice. From Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia).

God made both man and woman sexual beings with similar sexual chemistry called sexual hormones, but He wants the acts and pleasures of sex to be confined within the walls of a marriage. A caveat is in place here: Even in the sexual aspect of their relationship, a husband and wife are not to consider their bodies as their own but as belonging to their partner (1 Corinthians 7:3-5). Nor are they to focus on their own pleasure but rather the giving of pleasure to their spouse.

4.  Marriage is for Purity.  

Marriage is God’s design to help maintain sexual purity and to help prevent sexual immorality.  Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 7:2  “But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.”  Single people wear purity rings as a promise to themselves and to God  that they will remain a virgin until marriage.

Why is sexual purity so important?

I want to quote here in its entirety the answer given by what gotQuestions?org about the subject of sexual purity in marriage:

“God gave man and woman the joy and pleasure of sexual relations within the bounds of marriage, and the Bible is clear about the importance of maintaining sexual purity within the boundaries of that union between man and wife (Ephesians 5:31). Humans are well aware of the pleasing effect of this gift from God but have expanded it well beyond marriage and into virtually any circumstance. The secular world’s philosophy of “if it feels good, do it” pervades cultures, especially in the West, to the point where sexual purity is seen as archaic and unnecessary.

Yet look at what God says about sexual purity. “You should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God.” “For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life” (1 Thessalonians 4:3-5, 7). This passage outlines God’s reasons for calling for sexual purity in the lives of His children.

First, we are “sanctified” and for that reason, we are to avoid sexual immorality. The Greek word translated “sanctified” means literally “purified, made holy, consecrated [unto God].” As Christians, we are to live a purified life because we have been made holy by the exchange of our sin for the righteousness of Christ on the cross and have been made completely new creations in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17-21). Our old natures, with all their impurities, sexual and otherwise, have died and now the life we live, we live by faith in the One who died for us (Galatians 2:20). To continue in sexual impurity (fornication) is to deny that and doing so is, in fact, a legitimate reason to question whether we have ever truly been born again. Sanctification, the process by which we become more and more Christlike, is an essential evidence of the reality of our salvation.

We also see in 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 the necessity of controlling our bodies. When we give in to sexual immorality, we give evidence that the Holy Spirit is not indwelling us because we do not possess one of the fruits of the Spirit—self-control. All believers display the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) to a greater or lesser degree depending on the length of time they have walked with God. Uncontrolled “passionate lust” is a work of the flesh (Galatians 5:19), not of the Spirit. So controlling our lusts and living sexually pure lives is essential to anyone who professes to know Christ. In doing so, we honor God with our bodies (1 Corinthians 6:18-20).

We know God’s rules and discipline reflect His love for us. Following what He says can only help us during our time on earth. By maintaining sexual purity before marriage, we avoid past emotional entanglements that may negatively affect present relationships and marriages. Further by keeping the marriage bed pure (Hebrews 13:4), we can experience unreserved love for our mates, which is surpassed only by God’s enormous love for us.”

I say three jubilant amen to the answers given.

Also John Piper said in one of his sermons “God established a relationship called marriage. In it a man and a woman make a life-long covenant to honor each other with faithfulness and love. Sexual desire becomes the servant and the spice of that covenant bond of mutual honor… Sexual passion is real. Marriage is God's appointed place of its consummation…Sexual desire in itself is good. God made it in the beginning. It has its proper place. But it was made to be governed or regulated or guided by two concerns: honor toward the other person and holiness toward God. Lust is what that sexual desire becomes when that honor and that holiness are missing from it.” (John Piper is pastor for preaching and vision at Bethlehem Baptist Church in the Twin Cities of Minnesota.) 

5.  Marriage is for Portrayal

Eph 5:31  "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh."

Eph 5:32  This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

Here Paul quoting Genesis 2:24 refers the conjugal union between Adam and Eve was a type or portrayal representing the mystical union between Christ and his church. The marriage relationship is an illustration of the covenant relationship between Christ and His bride, the church. 

In the Bible if you take time to read from Genesis to Malachi, the various writers and the prophets in the Old Testament used the marriage covenant to portray the relationship between God and Israel. Paul in the New Testament uses the marriage union to represent Christ’s covenant of sacrificial love and oneness with the church. Just as marriage unites two people when they commit their lives to each other, so the Gospel joins the believer to Christ as he trusts Him for his salvation. Since the marriage covenant represents the permanent relationship between Christ and His church, it must be permanent; otherwise it would be an inaccurate portrayal representing of the indissoluble relationship between Christ and His church.

“The deepest biblical meaning of marriage has to do with Christ and how he is portrayed to the world. The mystery of marriage is that God created it to be a drama of Christ's relation to the church. How we treat our wives is a dramatic statement of how we think Christ should treat the church. How wives treat their husbands is a dramatic statement of how they think the church should treat Christ.” John Piper

Conclusion 

 So these are five purposes why God founded the institution of marriage: Marriage is for procreation, partnership, pleasure, purity and it’s a portrayal of the mystical union with Christ and His bride church.

This is one of the ways we can truly be our brother’s keeper.