Where did sexual love come from? It’s a question many have asked. I thought it would be a good idea to look at sexual love from the beginning, from the Book of Genesis. Yesterday, we looked at the first reference to sexual love in the Bible, Genesis 1:27-28. Today, we will look at the origins of union, or being united together as one.
Our verse of the day comes from Genesis 2:23-25.
“Then the man said, “This, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman because she is taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”
Let’s dig in.
Notice above that these are the first recorded words of man. The Man affirms her value as being one who was bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh. By naming her Woman, he also recognizes her distinctiveness.
The next two passages describe three actions the man is to take.
- The Man is to leave his father and mother.
- He is to hold fast to his wife.
- The two of them are to become one flesh.
The Man is to shift his loyalty from his parents to his wife. Before we go any further, we must remember that the Man and Woman were not created in the same way we were created. They did not have earthly parents. Remember that God created them both.
The passage is not a statement about the Man leaving his parents to hold fast to his wife, but rather instructions for future men shifting their primary human loyalty.
A man will shift his primary human loyalty away from his parents and to his wife, as Scripture outlines above. Instead of a man remaining under his parents’ family unit, he will establish a new family unit.
The two, both man and woman, will become one flesh. One flesh in this meaning is monogamy, or as I like to say, ‘You didn’t marry multiple women – you married one.’
Together they were to form an inseparable union much like the union between a parent and child. We’re not talking about a sexual union.
The two would become one, stronger together, united, and bound together as one flesh for the rest of their lives. As I write this, I remember parts of my wedding vows 25 years ago, ’till death do us part, in sickness and in health, for better or for worse, richer or poorer.’ Whatever order we said them doesn’t matter because unfortunately, it didn’t last.
Sexual union is an expression of the uniting as one flesh.
Lastly, the above passage says they were naked and not ashamed. This speaks of innocence and freedom from shame. Sadly, that would disappear when the serpent deceived them in the Garden of Eden, and their eyes were opened, and they realized they were naked. The Bible says they sewed fig leaves together to hide their nakedness.
Sin opened their eyes to their nakedness. They were no longer innocent like children but instead had a new awareness of themselves and each other.
We will spend some time in future posts looking at some more passages on sexual love to better understand what God intended with his creation.
Blessings!
Satan Started at the Beginning
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