In case you missed it, here is Part I

After a couple has secured their parents' blessings for their marriage and registered the same with the government, is there another ceremony they need to perform before they are recognised and celebrated as a couple? Nothing in the Bible suggests there is.

Some followers of Jesus Christ mistakenly believe that having a church wedding makes their marriage stronger and longer lasting. However, there is nothing of inherent spiritual worth that a church wedding adds to a marriage. 

The quality of any marriage is determined by the character of the husband and the wife. The more the two individuals’ character is aligned with God’s standard, the stronger their marriage bond will be. 

The contribution that the Church has been called to make in as far as strengthening marriages is concerned is to teach people to obey everything that Jesus Christ [has] commanded.

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” - Matthew 28:19-20 (NIV)

The teaching that brings forth godly character in a person is not a sermon at a wedding ceremony. Character is formed from habits that are formed from actions which are formed from thoughts. Accordingly, teaching people to obey every command of Jesus Christ is a process the Church needs to start and sustain in the lives of individuals long before they meet their mates. What the Church fails to do in the lives of two individuals while they are single, it cannot do in minutes of a church wedding.

Jesus Christ speaking to His disciples in Matthew 9:37 said, “‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.’”. In light of this, anything that does not align with the priorities that the Master has commissioned His Church to fulfill should be left to secular institutions. 

Why should followers of Jesus Christ be applying to the government for licences to register marriages on its behalf? If the Church helps the government with its work, will the government help the Church with its work? Can it?

Followers of Jesus Christ should stop burdening each other with wedding ceremonies that have no biblical basis. If believers desire to pray a blessing over a couple starting their marriage, they should go and say that prayer at the marriage ceremony organised by the couples’ families.

God does not indwell structures made by men as Acts 7:48 reminds us. He is omnipresent. Therefore, demanding that a couple come to a “church structure” to get a blessing upon their marriage is spiritually empty man-made dogma.

God established the family before the Church. Before anyone becomes a follower of Jesus Christ, they are children in a family. Followers of Jesus Christ should refrain from creating parallel authorities to those God has already established. Leave the family to execute its God-given mandate.

A parent's authority over their child(ren) is supreme. If parents have given their daughter to a man as his wife [in God’s name], that marriage ceremony is complete [with God's full blessings].