When flesh is good

The word flesh usually does not portend good things in the Bible. For example, when Jesus said, “that which is flesh is flesh; that which is spirit is spirit,” it is pretty clear that, so far as heaven is concerned, you don't want to be on the flesh side of the ledger.

But there is one case in which flesh is good: “For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”

Flesh is good when a man and a woman become one flesh in marriage.

I have been married to Valerie for 30 years, and I am just getting a glimpse of what this means. She and I together are one flesh in a way that is more than just my body or just her body. There is something mystically one when two fleshes are joined in the marriage union.

It has to do with bearing the image of God in the world, for purposes of being fruitful in that world, of multiplying in it, and of ruling over it. Far from being a concocted social invention, one that is hotly contested now, the union of a man and a woman together into one flesh to rightfully tend to God’s creation is the only institution that comes from before the Fall.

As my wife recovers from her cancer, I appreciate how, over the last 30 years, we have been fruitful in family, in relationships, as well as in the good works we have done – and much of it unknowing or unintended by us. Unknowing and unintended … because it came simply out of being one flesh together… and just living.

Logos2Go

John 3.6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Genesis 2.24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

Ephesians 5.31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”*

Genesis 1.28-31 "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." And God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food." And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good …