Thursday, February 3, 2011

Gangra - Canon 1

If any one shall condemn marriage, or abominate and condemn a woman who is a believer and devout, and sleeps with her own husband, as though she could not enter the Kingdom let him be anathema.

God had ordained marriage in creation (Gen 2:18-25) yet setting this aside for the sake of a perceived spirituality has been a recurring problem for centuries.  Those who promote such a thing as the normal Christian experience—or at minimum for church leaders—are called liars by the apostle Paul (1 Tim 4:2-3).  What God had created is to be accepted by faith with thanksgiving according to his word (1 Tim 4:4-5).  Manichaean asceticism had made its way into the church and probably joined with Paul's admonition that believers should be single as he was (1 Cor 7:8).  Since the apostle conceded that marriage was acceptable from lack of self-control (1 Cor 7:9), the logical conclusion from binding the heretical doctrine with apostolic teaching became an aberration.

The faithful woman who lives in loving, God-fearing obedience with her husband is to be honored and not derided.

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