Genesis 2:24
Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
Marriage is God’s idea and, therefore, must be lived out how God intended it to be lived out. From the very onset of its establishment, we see that God intended that marriage would be between one man and one woman. These two would leave their families of origins and begin a new family. It is the design and desire of God that when a man and a woman commit themselves to each other in marriage and consumate their marriage, then they become one flesh. No longer two separate individuals each pursuing their own end, but now united parties.
One of the saddest things to observe in our society today is how much we have trivialised marriage. It is as though we do not understand and appreciate that it is meant to be this unique one-flesh kind of union. That, as a husband, now in marriage, the interests of my family trump my own interests, and the same applies to my wife. In marriage, we have become one, and the analogy that Paul uses is that she has become my very body. And guess what? Children are a gracious gift from God in marriage, but when the two become one, a marriage is complete – whether or not children will be added.
Reflections
1. Why, in your opinion, do marriages struggle so much today?
2. Do you agree that a marriage is complete with or without children.?
