From the early centuries of the Church, some sectarian movements reacted to the corruptions of pagan sexuality and fleshly indulgence by embracing extreme forms of asceticism, a rigid lifestyle of self-denial that, in many cases, went beyond Scripture and into heresy. One of the most serious errors to emerge from this impulse was the denigration of marriage itself. Groups such as the Encratites, and later the Manichaeans and certain strands of monastic dualism, taught that marriage was not only inferior to celibacy but morally corrupting, inherently tied to the fallen physical world and thus incompatible with holiness and spiritual purity (Brown, 2008).

This view directly contradicts the pattern revealed in Genesis 2:18–24, where marriage is not a concession to sin but a central feature of God’s original, sinless creation. Before there was a fall, a curse, or even a command to be fruitful, there was a divine declaration: “It is not good that the man should be alone” (Genesis 2:18). The marital union that follows is presented not as a remedy for lust or a concession to weakness, but as a reflection of God’s wisdom, goodness, and design for human flourishing. The joining of man and woman in covenant is crowned with the declaration that “they shall be one flesh” (Genesis 2:24), language that speaks not only to physical union but to profound relational, emotional, and spiritual unity.

While the apostle Paul does indeed commend singleness as a gift for those called to it—for the purpose of undistracted service to the Lord (1 Corinthians 7:7–8, 32–35)—he never denigrates marriage. On the contrary, Paul affirms that marriage is “honourable in all” (Hebrews 13:4) and uses it as a picture of Christ’s covenantal love for the Church (Ephesians 5:31–32). Thus, any teaching that elevates celibacy by devaluing marriage contradicts not only the created order but the redemptive analogy that runs through Scripture.

The error of asceticism lies not in valuing self-discipline, but in confusing self-denial with spiritual superiority, and thereby rejecting the goodness of what God has made. In this sense, the denial of marriage becomes a functional denial of creation itself. Paul warned against such false teaching in explicit terms: “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith… forbidding to marry… which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving” (1 Timothy 4:1, 3). The forbidding of marriage is not a mark of maturity, but a sign of apostasy. It is no coincidence that Genesis 2:18 is the first verse in Scripture to declare something “not good”: the man’s isolation. God’s solution was not an abstract spiritual practice or solitary piety, but a relational gift in the form of another person, equal in dignity and opposite in form. The institution of marriage, then, is not a hindrance to holiness but a venue for it where love, sacrifice, service, and joy are learned in the context of embodied, covenantal union.