Written in March 2005
LEAVE AND HOLD FAST
Genesis 2:24
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.”
This is a very important verse. So it is quoted by Jesus and Paul
LEAVE TO HOLD FAST
Leave parents.
Elsewhere in the Bible we are told to respect and honour parents and care for them when they are old.
But with marriage we have a different relationship with the parents.
The most important relationship on earth: relationship between husband and wife (next only to relationship between God and man).
This is not so in society. After marriage, especially after the children come, each one gets busy with their roles, so that the husband-wife relationship is neglected.
Not in Christianity: here the husband wife relationship is something you approach with great dedication.
A Key aspect of this is the Physical Union
“And they shall become one flesh.”
The Bible has a lot to say about sexual love and physical unity.
It is a very important part of marriage.
In some cultures, after sufficient children come: couples stop having physical relations.
Therefore sometimes the men go after other women.
The Bible considers this as a terrible crime similar to murder and therefore in the OT the death penalty is decreed for this.
In the Bible, an essential part of the unity between husband and wife is the physical aspect.
Paul: 1 Cor. 7:5: Do not deprive one another because Satan can tempt you and cause you to sin.
Therefore a couple without a healthy physical union have moved away from God’s plan for marriage.
Yet even in the physical relationship, the key is love.
It is something based on love for the person; not on ones selfish desires.
It involves a deep desire to satisfy the other.
And loves finds deep satisfaction in that.
So love is the key to Christian marriage
Therefore Paul says,
Husbands Give their Lives up for their Wives
Eph. 5:25: “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”
Just as Christ died for us, we die for them
The Husband’s deep desire: to sacrifice for his wife
Some examples:
When we keep doing this, people will realise that we are forging a new culture: the Christian culture.
The husband’s great ambition in life: how can I make my wife happy?
The great reward of this: a happy home with happy children.
“The best way a father can love his children is to love their mother.”
The Inner Beauty of the Wife
1 Peter 3:1-6: How to deal with a husband who is not a Christian.
Clothe themselves not with outward show
but with inner beauty—respectful and pure conduct v. 2
—a gentle spirit which is very precious in God’s sight v. 4.
Beautiful inside—not boiling with anger inside.
The husband and children will come to a beautiful home.
Some wives—unhappy inside therefore always complaining
Prov. 19:13: “a quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping of rain.”
If the husband is a Christian worker: she complains about the husbands work.
The children see that their family is unhappy because of God’s work.
They end up hating God who is the cause of unhappiness in their home.
Sometimes the husband hates this dripping rain.
On the way home he stops at the bar and gets drunk.
She shouts at him when he comes home, but he does not feel the pain.
But next morning he has a head-ache and his wife starts shouting again!
You can’t be happy if the people you love are so unhappy.
Drink ruins the joy of the home.
So the wife must make the home a beautiful place through inner beauty.
But life is tough;
we have to work hard just to survive
We encounter so many wicked, selfish and dishonest people.
Where is the strength for beauty and love?
The Bible says that God’s love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom. 5:5).
God gives us the Love
God gives us the beauty
Something truly beautiful has happened.
He has loved us,
died for us,
saved us
and he now lives with us
His love is greater than all the wickedness and hardship we encounter.
So we are joyful: “See how much he has loved me”
We also have peace: “He is with me”
True the problem is big; but God is with me and he loves me and is God is bigger than the problem.
So we go to him and live with him.
However busy we stay close to God.
We pray and read the Bible.
We let his love come into us everyday.
You will be filled with joy.
You have strength to do all your work and also to care for each other
You home: happy home.
My wish for you.
Husband: One day we’ll have a lot of money and we will be rich.
Wife: We are already rich. Maybe one day we will have a lot of money.
A happy home is a rich home.