One Flesh

One Flesh

The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.” . . .

So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the LORD God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man.

“At last!” the man exclaimed, “This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh! She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken from ‘man.’”

Genesis 2:18, 21-23

As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one.

Ephesians 5:31-32

“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. . . .” “Roses are red, violets are blue. . . .” Have you ever noticed how love seems to express itself in poetry? In fact, the very first recorded human words are love poetry. When Adam saw Eve for the first time, his words came out in a poem:

This one is bone from my bone,

and flesh from my flesh!

She will be called “woman,”

because she was taken from “man.”

Genesis tells us where love between a man and a woman comes from. In fact, the Bible says that romantic love is “the very flame of the LORD” (SONG OF Solomon 8:6, ESV). Throughout the Bible we see that God uses marriage to show us something about the ultimate romance—the way God loves us. Why do men and women tend to pair off and get married? Is it just something that society has developed over time? No, marriage is something God created to show us how he wants to be intimate with us and committed to us—and how he wants us to love him and be faithful to him. Marriage is God’s gift to people to help us understand his passionate love toward us in a way nothing else can.

DISCUSSION STARTERS

How can you tell when someone is really in love?

What do you think it means to be “united into one”?

In what ways does married love help us understand the relationship between Christ and the church?