Marriage
by Ulrich Stadler

    Whosoever does not have the gift of chastity, shall, by the will of God, be married.
    Chastity, as Christ and the Holy Spirit bears witness, is a gift from God. Whosoever has not received this grace or gift from God, and feels that he may not preserve his chastity and resolves to marry, may do so in the Lord. This is wisdom when one realizes that he may no longer contain himself, except by God's grace.
    If he has not received this gift from God, and knows that God has ordained that man should marry, he is to follow the will of God else he will be beaten with many stripes. If he continues in his passion, and ignores the will of God, he will be rejected by God.
    Such joining in marriage shall be sealed in the Lord, to God's glory, as explained below.

    Marriage is the joining together of one man and of one woman so that the one helps the other to multiply seed to the honor of God.
    Marriage should be brought about or performed in accordance with the order of God, in the obedience of Jesus Christ, our Lord.
    In the same way as Abraham took for his son, Isaac, a wife of his own house, as the Lord had ordained, so also all the children of Abraham, or Christians, should marry within the house of God and not go to heathen or other peoples, for by doing so they could come to forget the almighty God and be led astray.
    Nor should any be placed together in marriage, contrary to the order of God, without the knowledge of the servants who hold office in God's service. Marriage must be appraised with Godly counsel and in divine fear. For the Holy Spirit points out and says, 'Do nothing without counsel and you shall not regret the deed when it is done.' (Sirach 32:24)
    Marriage, also, should be entered upon with a pure conscience and a well-prepared heart, without knowing what God will send.
    Now what is thus joined and united in the name of the Lord, is a marriage that no man can put asunder - a plant which the Lord has planted, which endures forever.
    Now, whosoever breaks or rends asunder such a marriage is an adulterer and has no part in the kingdom of God.
    But whosoever comes together any other way is not joined or united by God and is therefore no marriage, as follows.

    Where there is a Christian church, there is also Christian order. Whosoever resists the order of God and takes a wife (as the heathens do that know not God), acting without regard to God's will, and only for selfish pleasure, for beautify or form, seeking only worldly honor and riches or out of shameful wantonness, like a horse or mule, then the devil has power over such a marriage, for it is not of God. (Tobit 6:18)
    All who come together in such a way will be punished and destroyed by God unless they separate and reject the unrighteous union.
    For whatsoever God has not joined together and planted, is worthless, and shall be put out of the House of God and destroyed.

    The husband should be the head of the wife, leading and going before her in all good works. He should love his wife as his own flesh and not be bitter toward her nor distrustful of her, but he should honor her, as the weaker vessel, with all gladness, as is his duty, even as Christ does His Bride.
    Thus, also, wives should be subject to their husbands, as to the Lord, and the wife should respect him and not rule over him, for he is her head and the image and glory of God. For his sake, also, was she created, and not he for her sake, but she is his honor.
    Yet, in the Lord, neither is man without woman nor woman without man. Thus woman comes from man and again man from woman, but both come from God.
    All women should be sensible, reasonable, clear and pure, domestic and obedient to their own husbands, not arrogant nor wild, but of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is greatly prized by God, like the holy women in times gone by, such as Judith, Susanna, Sarah and other holy women.
    The prayer of such married people is pleasing in the sight of God and without blemish. And it pleases God when husband and wife live in harmony in the Lord. That is divine marriage.

    Marriage does indicate and signify the love and kindness of God toward the human race. Therefore did God plant and bring up a wife for his beloved Son with great toil and labor. She, like a beautiful growth in the field, was surrounded by filth and desolation, but He drew her out and cleansed her with water and anointed her with oil.
    'And I passed thee by and beheld thee, and lo, it was time to woo thee. Then I spread my skirt over thee and covered thy shame. And I swore unto thee and gave myself to thee in a covenant', says the Lord God, 'that thou should be mine. And I bathed thee with water and washed away thy blood from thee, and anointed thee with balsam, and clothed thee with embroidered garments and with all manner of beautiful jewels.' He feeds her with honey and fine flour and oil and makes her Queen.
    To this wedding all the races of the earth are invited, but they are few that come to this kingdom of the peace of the Son of God.
    They, however, who prepare themselves and cast off their filthy and soiled clothing and put on, as is briefly shown later, beautiful, spiritual wedding garments, shall have joy, eternal joy, with the Bridegroom, Jesus Christ, for ever and ever.
    For the love of this Bridegroom and of this Bride is so great that not even with much water can it be quenched or drowned.
    This Bride is the people of God, the royal priesthood, that God has chosen for Himself from all the nations of the earth, and purified by the washing of water in the Word.
    The Bridegroom, however, is Christ, the true Son of God, who is the Head of his church. He goes before her, he feeds her, and is the Savior of his Bride. Therefore she may well rejoice with all her heart. She is obedient and subject to him. She forsakes home, fields and pastures, father and mother, and cleaves to her dear husband. And he loves her with all his heart. Thus the marriage, which God has joined together, should and must be like Christ and his Church.
    If a man should prove faithless to Christ, and breaks His covenant, he is an adulterer, and if anyone helps to break his marriage, this man too is an adulterer, as explained below.

    No one may put asunder that God has joined together and ordained.
    As shown above, husband and wife are one flesh but if one should become faithless to his helpmate and keeps company with another, that one shall be cut off from his helpmate, for fornication separates a marriage, so that they are no longer one flesh but two, and are separated and dissolved.
    He who has broken his marriage vows is bound by the Word of God and is unclean. The other is free and single, has no part with the adulterer.
    This is carnal adultery. The adultery spoken of by the Holy Spirit through Moses is more important: 'If the wife of your bosom entices you secretly, and tries to draw you away to other gods, you shall not pity her, nor spare her, but you shall surely kill her. Your hand shall be the first one to strike her, afterward the hand of all the people.' (Deut 13:6-7) This means that if one partner would lead the other astray, that one is to be shunned.
    If one marriage partner would lead the other from the truth, the one is free to leave without sin, free to withdraw from such unclean flesh. For a brother or sister is obligated to obey God and follow Him, rather than his own carnal desire and is not bound in such circumstances. For God has called His own in peace, which they are to pursue and to abandon the heresy or chaff, the enemy of God.
    This type of adultery separates one from God. When one has broken his covenant with God, he is divorced from God and no longer belongs to God. Therefore, whosoever breaks his covenant with his partner is cut off from God and the marriage is terminated, for one has broken the covenant. 
    'I will establish my covenant with you and you shall know that I am the Lord! That you should remember and feel ashamed and in your confusion be reduced to silence, when I forgive you for everything you have done.' declares the Lord. (Ezek 16:62)

(Few Anabaptists have dealt more often and more thoroughly with the subject of marriage than Ulrich Stadler, a leading minister (Servant of the Word) in the Hutterian Brethren church. After suffering much tribulation, he died in 1540.  Stadler was one of the strongest personalities of the first generation of Anabaptism, next to Peter Riedemann, the best theological thinker of the Moravian groups, a man of stern conceptions of true discipleship.   Robert Friedman)

Psalm 133:  "For there [in brotherly community] the Lord has commanded the blessing, life for evermore."

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This page was last update on 07/11/2000