The One-Flesh Relationship
For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
Genesis 2:23-25(NIV)
As my husband and I celebrate our Forty-fifth Anniversary I consider again God’s plan for marriage. It was God’s intention that marriage would be permanent between two people who have a “one-flesh relationship”. The implication of one flesh is that nothing could be good for only one of them. By definition, no single person in the marital relationship could consider ‘good’ that which did harm to the other. The very idea would be silly if we applied it to our understanding of our own bodies. Imagine doing something good for one part of the body that does damage to another part. When we are considering a new prescription we immediately want to know the ‘side effects’. If they are substantial wewant to be sure that the wholebody eventually benefits. If we cannot foresee in our actions the potential harm to the marital union we must be ready to put things right as soon as we discover it.
If God believed this was possible why do we set out to prove Him wrong? We must remember that his plan only came into question after the Fall when the prince of this world caused men’s (and women’s) hearts to harden toward each other. Lifelong marriage is possible because God said it is.
Jesus continually makes mention of marriage and the bridegroom so that we can understand that this relationship was designed to work. It is compared to His relationship with the church so that we will know that it can work only when the relationship has God as its center and its focus. How else would we overcome our persistent, pervasive, relentless selfishness - our desire to please ourselves at the expense of everything else. We must depend on God as the source of that love that will enable us not only to stay married, but to stay passionately, intimately, and enthusiastically married until death parts us.
