How To Have A Great Marriage - Genesis 2:18-25 Series

So when Jesus was asked about divorce He comes back to this passage. This would be in Mark 10 or Matthew 19 if you’re taking notes. You can write those down. Mark 10, Matthew 19. Jesus quotes this passage that we’re looking at right now and He says to them – It was once said they shall become one flesh. Then He repeats it. They shall become one flesh, He says. And what God has joined together let not man tear apart. That’s what happens in divorce. It’s this tearing apart that takes place.

God designed that two people come together and they become one. One flesh. There's this closeness that they develop so there’s this sense of…even when you’re not together, you know someone’s thinking about you and you’re thinking about them. There's this relationship that exists even when you’re not together. Unity is this third principle.

And then this fourth principle comes from this last part where it says – The man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. Certainly he’s talking about here the physical just looking at each other physically. They weren’t ashamed of that. But it’s much bigger than that. Because when you get married, you’re unclothed from your emotions and your spirit. Your mate knows more about you than anyone else. They know when you’re having a struggle. They know when you’re under pressure. That is what it means to be in this intimate relationship. That’s what’s described here. This closeness. When it says they were naked and they were not ashamed, there’s this idea that in the marriage relationship we know each other and it’s okay. We’re going to accept each other. We’re going to enjoy each other. We’re going to get to know each other. There are differences between us, but we are going to experience that intimacy. The value of marriage increases in our lives when we recognize that. Four principles about marriage that we see in this passage that are strategic.

But maybe you’re saying wow that’s really great, but I’ve been in a marriage and I didn’t experience that. Or maybe you’re in a marriage or you’ve been in a marriage where you’ve been hurt and damaged. I want to talk about that as part of a conclusion with you today about this passage. Because this is in Genesis 2. But in Genesis 3 we have sin coming into the world and it’s going to violate and it’s going to damage their relationship. We’re going to see that they’re pointing fingers at each other. We’re going to see that they’re not unashamed anymore. Now they’re going to find fig leaves and get clothed. So things are going to happen in their relationship, but also brokenness is going to be coming into the world in some terrible ways. So you’re going to see right through the rest of the Bible.

The rest of the story of the Bible is this: There is brokenness that exists in the family, brokenness that exists in marriage, brokenness that exists in people. God is in the business of redeeming us and restoring us and providing for us what we need. But we live with brokenness. We live with the death of a spouse. We live with the loss of the dream that we had of a close relationship. We live with brokenness often and some people don’t experience the beauty that takes place in a marriage relationship. When you can, you want to do that and you want to invest in that because it takes work to experience all of those things that we talked about. But still there are going to be times when you experience brokenness. Part of recognizing God and His work in is growing and learning those things about ourselves that you need to develop. Things like humility when you’re wrong. You need to develop contentment. That you’re not going to have everything you always wanted. Contentment is part of what we learn. We learn forgiveness of ourselves. We learn forgiveness for other people. Brokenness causes us to learn more about humility and the need for God and what He wants to do in our lives. That is the beauty of what God wants to do in each of our hearts.