Biblical Marriage

First of all marriage does not belong to the church. The church has no power to authorize a marriage. That fact can easily be observed when God instituted marriage, in the garden. The institution of marriage was established by God for all humans, believers and unbelievers.

Generally each person accounts to God for their marriage. But like all humans we live in a culture and society that has common practices and rituals we use to socially demonstrate our marriage contract. As well, marriage has always been viewed as contractual, even in the garden. Unlike us, Adam and Eve had the convenience of the actual presence of God and Him to sanction the marriage at that time. Since then the institution of government has been established by God for all humans and now governments function in the stead of God for such authorizations. They establish what must be done for a marriage to be viewed as contractually binding in society.

In the case of a minister, he too can be viewed as standing in God's stead as a source of authority in sanctioning a marriage, making it legitimate/contractual. And in fact in America and most countries the government accepts this tenet and places trust in the officiating of an ordained minister, hence the reason they are often officiating and validating marriages.

 

Rather complicated, wot ?

On the one hand, a devout couple who gets married only in the church, and have no papers to sign, such as the marriage "contract", may be married in the eyes of the church they belong to, but certainly not according to law. Would they be considered common-law marriage ?

On the other hand, a non-churchgoing couple decides to get married only before, say, a justice of the peace, or have a mayor, or a ship captain, officiate their marriage, complete with the necessary papers from application to license and contract, they are absolutely married, both in the "eyes of God" and the "eyes of the law". Legally married, IOW.

Have had the same questions before.

Never arrived at a Scriptural answer.

 

That rather depends on local laws. Here in the UK, a couple (devout or otherwise) who marry in a church building have to sign papers just as they would if they married in a register office. The only difference might be that some church ministers (Church of England clergymen, for instance) are authorised to act for the Registrar of Births, Marriages and Deaths, so in such a church, there is no requirement for the Registrar to be present. The wording at the bottom of the resulting marriage certificate is different, though. That from a "church" wedding would read something like:

Married in the Parish Church according to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England after Banns by me, John Doe (Vicar) ​

The lower part of the certificate for a Register Office wedding would say:

Married in the Register Office by Certificate before me, Frederick Bloggs (Registrar)​